Russia Says the US Was Behind Drone Attack on the Kremlin

The US has denied any involvement

Russia on Thursday said the US was behind the drone attack that targeted the Kremlin, which Moscow said was an attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s life.

“We know very well that the decisions to carry out such actions, such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kiev. Rather, it is precisely in Washington,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He added that “often even the targets themselves are not determined by Kiev, but by Washington.”

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova made similar comments. “First and foremost, the creators and handlers of the Kiev regime, who hail from Washington, London and NATO, bear overall responsibility for everything that it [Ukraine] is perpetrating,” she wrote on Telegram.

The comments drew a denial of involvement in the drone attack from the White House. “I can assure you that there was no involvement by the United States in this. Whatever it was did not involve us,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “We had nothing to do with this.”

The comments from Moscow suggest Russia is considering a major escalation of the war. Peskov said Russia was considering a “wide variety” of responses to the drone attack.

“Naturally, I cannot provide you any details here. In any case the issue may only be about well-thought-out steps that meet the interests of our country,” he told reporters.

Ukrainian officials have also denied involvement in the drone attack, which targeted the Kremlin early Wednesday morning, but Ukrainian attacks inside Russia have stepped up in recent months.

Pentagon documents allegedly leaked by Jack Teixeira show that the US was concerned about Ukraine planning attacks in Moscow and that Zelensky might not have control over his intelligence services.

One leak showed that Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, determined its agents violated orders by attacking a Russian surveillance plane in Belarus. Another leak revealed that Ukraine postponed planned attacks in Moscow that would have coincided with the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.