22 Mins Ago
Kremlin drone ‘attack’ staged by Russia, Ukrainian official claims
A political adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia staged a drone attack on the Kremlin that Moscow blamed on Kyiv.
Ukraine has already vehemently denied any involvement in the incident, which Russia characterized as a “planned terrorist attack” and assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian police officers guard the Red Square in front of the Kremlin on May 3, 2023, in Moscow, Russia.
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Mykhailo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian official, voiced further doubts over the purported “attack” on Twitter Thursday, stating that video footage of the “attack” — which showed two unidentified figures on the roof of the Kremlin’s Senate building as a drone explodes above it — was suspicious, as was the 12-hour delay between the alleged incident and the Kremlin’s announcement on it.
Podolyak said that, in contrast, the shelling of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday that left 23 civilians dead was all too real.
Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration, said Thursday morning that Russia shelled the wider region 98 times over the previous 24 hours, and that residential areas of the region were targeted. Russia denies targeting civilians, despite daily strikes on civilian infrastructure.
— Holly Ellyatt
49 Mins Ago
Russia will ‘respond’ to alleged Kremlin drone attack, top official says
Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday that Russia will respond to an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin “when we consider it necessary.”
The Kremlin blamed the “attack” on Ukraine yesterday, calling it an assassination attempt on Russian President Putin, but did not present evidence to back up its allegations. Kyiv denied any involvement in the incident.
“How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable,” Antonov said, according to comments published by Russian state news agency Tass.
“Russia will respond to this insolent and presumptuous terrorist attack. We will answer when we consider it necessary. We will answer in accordance with the assessments of the threat that Kiev posed to the leadership of our country.”
“Our adversaries have no desire to seek peace, to save thousands of lives of ordinary Ukrainians. Definitely, we will take this circumstance into account while working out our strategy to implement the goals and objectives of the special military operation,” said Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov.
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Ukraine denied any involvement in an alleged drone attack which the Kremlin alleges Kyiv carried out in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Some Western analysts believe it’s likely that Russia staged the “attack” itself as a possible “false flag” attack, and to bolster its portrayal of Ukraine as a “terrorist” state. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia’s report should be taken with a “very large shaker of salt.”
Antonov hit back at those responses, saying U.S. officials had been “striking in their cynicism and absurdity.”
“The theses that this act of terrorism was allegedly a ‘false flag operation’ are blasphemous and deceitful. That is, it was Russia itself that staged a provocation against the heart of our statehood?!,” Antonov said.
The ambassador did not detail how Russia might “respond” to the incident but claimed it showed Ukraine did not want peace.
“Our adversaries have no desire to seek peace, to save thousands of lives of ordinary Ukrainians. Definitely, we will take this circumstance into account while working out our strategy to implement the goals and objectives of the special military operation,” Antonov said.
— Holly Ellyatt
2 Hours Ago
Kyiv and Odesa targeted with further drone attacks overnight
Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the port city of Odesa were targeted in further attempted drone strikes overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram that the capital had been targeted again with drones and missiles, marking the “third attack on the capital over four days of May.”
“Our city has not suffered such a dense intensity of strikes since the beginning of this year,” Popko said. The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted over three hours last night. Popko said the drones and missiles were destroyed, although the debris from destroyed drones damaged some buildings and parked cars. No casualties were reported, he said.
A member of the mobile air defense group, called “drone…
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