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Russia has blamed the US for planning “a deliberate attempt” to kill President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack against the Kremlin, vowing retaliatory measures when it deems appropriate.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov underlined in a Thursday statement that Moscow is aware that Washington had selected the target of the drone strike and that Kiev was merely carrying out the US plan.
Another Kremlin statement declared earlier on Wednesday that a drone attack was foiled on the official residence of the Russian president in the early hours of the day.
Peskov emphasized later that Moscow reserves the right “to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit.”
He further noted that Russia had several retaliatory options under consideration and that the response, whenever it came, would be carefully examined and balanced.
He added that an urgent probe into the attack was underway, but could not predict when the results would be announced.
US officials, however, insist that they were still assessing the incident, claiming they had no information about who might have been responsible.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken further stated he had seen reports from Moscow about the alleged attack, but “can’t in any way validate them.”
“We simply don’t know,” Blinken claimed on Wednesday.
“We’ll see what the facts are. And it’s really hard to comment or speculate on this without really knowing what the facts are,” he added.
Ukraine also denied involvement in the incident, accusing Russia of terrorism in response as its usual practice.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak also denied Kiev’s involvement, claiming that Moscow’s statements were an attempt to control the narrative ahead of what Ukraine and its Western sponsors keep repeating as a much-anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Video that appeared on social media shows a bright flash and a puff of smoke over a part of the Kremlin.
After the initial report of the incident, another video appeared on social media showing the moment a drone exploded above the Kremlin.
According to an analysis of the video by CNN, the incident supports the Kremlin’s statement that two drones were flown above the Kremlin early Wednesday morning.
Prior to the incident, Russia had repeatedly blamed Kiev forces for carrying out multiple drone attacks inside Russian territory.
Earlier this year, the governor of the Moscow region said a Ukrainian drone had crashed near the village of Gubastovo, southeast of the capital.
