Recent Russian barrages near Kyiv included a successful strike on the headquarters of Ukraine’s military intelligence apparatus, Russian officials—including President Vladimir Putin—have said.
“We have already mentioned the possibility of strikes targeting decision-making headquarters and centers,” Putin said on the evening of May 30.
“The Ukrainian military intelligence headquarters, which was hit two or three days ago, falls into this category,” he told reporters while visiting a cultural center in Moscow.
Earlier the same day, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily briefing that its forces had carried out multiple strikes on “central decision-making points where terrorist attacks against Russian territory were being planned under the guidance of Western intelligence experts.”
A specialist inspects the damaged facade of a multi-storey apartment building after a reported drone attack in Moscow on May 30, 2023. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)While the ministry did not disclose the number or locations of the “decision-making points” in question, it claimed that “all designated targets” had been hit.
Nor did the ministry provide further details about the “Western intelligence experts,” who, it alleged, were helping Kyiv stage attacks inside Russian territory.
As of the time of writing, Ukrainian officials had yet to respond to the allegations.
A U.S. State Department spokesperson told The Epoch Times: “We would refer you to the Government of Ukraine for comment on Russia’s claims to have hit Ukraine’s military intelligence headquarters.”
“As a general matter, we do not support attacks inside of Russia,” the spokesperson said. “We have been focused on providing Ukraine’s forces with the equipment and training they need to retake their own sovereign territory, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.”
“The United States was not involved and had nothing to do with this,” the spokesperson added in reference to recent attacks inside Russia.
The assertions by Putin and the Defense Ministry came on the heels of a May 30 drone attack in central Moscow that damaged several residential buildings but failed to cause casualties.
According to Russian military officials, the attack involved a total of eight combat drones, all of which were neutralized before reaching their targets.
Moscow was quick to blame Kyiv for the incident, which it later described as a “terrorist attack.” However, evidence implicating Ukraine—or its allies—has yet to be produced.
Kyiv, meanwhile, has denied any involvement, although some Ukrainian officials hailed the attack—the second such incident in less than a month.
An explosion of a drone in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on May 28, 2023. (Gleb Garanich/Reuters)On May 2, the Kremlin itself came under attack by two aerial drones, both of which failed to cause human or material damage.
Shortly after the latest attack in Moscow, a Kremlin spokesman claimed the assault had come in response to a successful Russian strike on a high-value Ukrainian target.
“What we saw [in Moscow] was the Kyiv regime’s reaction to our very effective strike against one of their decision-making centers,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
In line with Putin’s subsequent statement, Peskov claimed that the “very effective strike” had occurred on May 28.
He did not provide any details, however, regarding the location or nature of the alleged target.
Over the past three days, Ukraine has been subject to some of the most extensive bombardments—by both drones and artillery—since Russia launched its invasion in February 2023.
Speaking on Telegram, Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said the city had been subject to “massive” barrages from “different directions in several waves.”
A spokeswoman for Ukraine’s southern military command said the strikes were aimed at exhausting Ukrainian air defenses and defenders’ “physical and moral strength.”
Satellite image of a field hospital and a troop deployment in Belgorod, Russia, on Feb. 21, 2022. (Courtesy of Satellite image 2022 Maxar Technologies/Handout via Reuters)Moscow, meanwhile, claims the strikes were confined solely to military targets. It also claims to be using precision munitions in order to minimize civilian casualties.
“We are striking at the territory of Ukraine … with long-range precision weapons, at military infrastructure facilities only,” Putin said in recent remarks.
After the strikes had subsided on the evening of May 30, Kyiv announced that one person had been killed by falling debris from an intercepted projectile.
Recent artillery strikes, however, have not all been in one direction.
On May 31, Ukrainian forces shelled the town of Shebekino in Russia’s western Belgorod region, injuring four people and damaging buildings, according to local authorities.
Speaking on Telegram, Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said that two industrial facilities in the town—located 4.5 miles from Ukraine’s border—had been hit the previous day.
Ukrainian officials have yet to respond to Gladkov’s claims.
On May 22, pro-Ukrainian forces staged a large-scale assault, involving drones and artillery, on several districts of Belgorod. Russia’s western Bryansk region was the target of a similar cross-border attack in March.
Reuters contributed to this report.