US Is Suspected Of Being Behind Alleged Kremlin Drone Attack, Says Russia

Russian forces continued to launch combat drones against Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, while Moscow claimed that the United States was behind a drone strike on the Kremlin that was intended to murder President Vladimir Putin.
Without offering any proof, Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Ukraine had carried out the alleged drone strike on the Kremlin stronghold early on Wednesday as per American instructions.

Following a series of explosions last week targeting oil depots and goods trains in western Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea, Kyiv has denied any involvement in that incident. Moscow has also attributed such assaults on Ukraine.

The attempts in Kyiv and Washington to deny this (the attack on the Kremlin) are obviously absurd. We are perfectly aware that decisions regarding such deeds, such terrorist attacks, are made in Washington and not in Kiev, Peskov told the press.

The Kremlin has stated that it has the right to take reprisals. On Thursday, Peskov stated that an urgent inquiry was underway and any response will be carefully thought out and impartial.

Separately, the foreign ministry of Russia declared that the alleged drone attack "must not go unanswered" and that it demonstrated Kiev's lack of interest in settling the 15-month-old conflict through negotiations.

Aims at Odessa and Kiev

In advance of a significant counteroffensive by Ukraine to retake occupied territory, Russia earlier fired twenty combat drones against Ukraine, hitting Kyiv for the third time in four days and also targeting a university campus in the Black Sea city of Odessa.

According to the city administration of Kyiv, Moscow likely fired drones and ballistic missiles, but they were all shot down.

It stated that "the Russians struck Kyiv employing Shahed loitering munitions and missiles, perhaps of the ballistic variety."

Ballistic missiles are challenging to shoot down, but Ukraine may have deployed advanced air defence systems from the West to do it.

Of the 24 "kamikaze" drones used in the pre-dawn attack, air defences shot down 18, according to officials. Twelve of the 15 drones that were fired at Odessa were shot down, but three of them reportedly hit a college campus.

Although a power plant owned by the electricity provider DTEK Energo was damaged by shelling in the Donetsk region, no casualties were reported, according to DTEK and the Energy Ministry.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the regional governor, reported that the number of fatalities from Russian bombardment of Kherson and its surroundings in southern Ukraine on Wednesday increased to 23.

"Our homes are the areas the adversary wants to destroy. Our lives and the lives of our children are their targets "He made this statement in a video posted online on Thursday, following attacks on a supermarket, a train station, and residential buildings.

In Ukraine, Moscow denies attacking civilians.

Following a drone attack that ignited product storage facilities, Russian emergency services quickly put out a fire at the Ilsky oil refinery, one of the biggest in southern Russia, according to the TASS news agency.

Moscow asserts that Ukraine frequently uses drones to attack military and infrastructure targets, particularly in areas near Russia, but Ukraine hardly ever admits responsibility for these attacks.

On a Thursday visit to the International Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Putin must be tried for the war.

In March, the ICC issued a warrant for Putin's arrest for the alleged deportation of children from Ukraine.

"The full force of justice must be felt by the perpetrator. Our historical duty is to fulfil this "stated Zelensky during a speech.

In its "special military operation" in Ukraine, which it claims is necessary to defend its national security against an antagonistic, aggressive West, Russia, which is not a member of the ICC and opposes its jurisdiction, denies perpetrating atrocities.

Zelensky, whose nation has received significant financial and military support from the West, has threatened to push all invading Russian soldiers back to the borders set up in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union.

There are no ongoing peace negotiations to put an end to the conflict, which has destroyed Ukrainian villages and cities, claimed thousands of lives, and forced millions of people from their homes.

On Thursday, the Kremlin stated that it was aware that Pope Francis was considering methods to end the conflict but that it was unaware of any specific peace proposals from the Vatican.