Russia baselessly accused the US of masterminding a supposed assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin Thursday, a day after blaming the drone blitz on Ukraine.
White House leaders quickly rejected the charge, and Ukraine leaders had also said they were not involved in the unverified strike on the Kremlin early Wednesday, which Russia had branded a terror attack.
“Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington,” said Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
Video footage showed two airborne objects approaching Russia’s Senate Palace, one of them exploding with a bright flash. Russia claimed its military used “radar systems” to “disable” the drones “without causing any casualties or damage.” Putin was not in his residence at the complex at the time, officials said.
Without citing evidence, Peskov maintained that the US was “undoubtedly” behind the supposed strike, which analysts are speculating was a staged false flag attack, orchestrated for propaganda purposes amid Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
“This is also often dictated from across the ocean … In Washington they must clearly understand that we know this,” Peskov said.
The statement was the latest attempt by Moscow to link the US directly to its war in the former Soviet territory. Last month, Putin told US Ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy that American support for protestors who demonstrated against 2014 Ukraine’s pivot away from a European Union partnership were to blame for his current landgrab war.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the US does not encourage Ukraine to strike outside its borders, calling the claim “ludicrous.”
The US has supplied Ukraine with more than $100 billion worth of aid, but has taken strides to ensure its military equipment was not used on Russian soil.
“The United States has nothing to do with it. We don’t even know exactly what happened here, but I can assure you the United States had no role in it whatsoever,” Kirby told CNN.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky also ardently denied involvement while in Finland Wednesday to rally Nordic leaders to back his country’s defense.
“We are not attacking Putin or Moscow,” he said, adding, “We are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and cities.
“We do not have enough weapons even for this. That is why we do not use them elsewhere. We have a deficit. We cannot use everything and everywhere.”
Russia has claimed it reserves the right to counterattack, with former president Dmitry Medvedev calling for Moscow to “physically eliminate” Zelensky.
Peskov maintained that any response would be carefully considered.
The incident came before a May 9 Red Square military parade to mark the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, which is a public holiday in Russia.
Russia had launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine last year under the false pretense that it was trying to “de-Nazify” the democratic nation.
With Post wires