Moscow described the allegedly attempted drone attack on the Kremlin as a “planned act of terrorism and an assassination attempt” on Putin. The President was unharmed and there were no casualties.
In response, the head of the Russian lower house, Vyacheslav Volodin, called for the government in Kiev to be “destroyed”. There could be “no negotiations” with Zelensky’s government. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called for the “physical elimination” of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “and his clique”.
Selenskyj rejected the accusation from Moscow. “We didn’t attack Putin,” he said at a press conference in Helsinki, where he surprisingly traveled on Wednesday. “We are fighting on our territory, we are defending our villages and towns,” said the Ukrainian president. He attended a summit of Nordic countries in the Finnish capital.
The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podoliak also assured that Ukraine had “nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin”. Such reports, “staged” by Russia, represented an attempt to prepare the way for a “large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine” at the information level.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken strongly doubted the accusations from Moscow. He could not confirm the reports, said Blinken in Washington. However, he would “take everything that comes out of the Kremlin with great reservation”.
For days there have been increasing reports of attacks and activities from the Russian-Ukrainian border area that indicate acts of sabotage. According to the regional administration, a fuel depot caught fire in the Russian village of Volna near the bridge to the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula on Wednesday night. There were no dead or injured.
A fuel depot in the strategically important port city of Sevastopol in Crimea caught fire on Saturday after a suspected drone attack. In mid-April, the authorities installed by Russia in Crimea canceled the May 9 commemoration ceremonies there on the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany for security reasons.
In Moscow, however, the traditional end-of-war parade on Red Square will take place as planned, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. Putin will take part.
Russia launched terrorism investigation “in connection with attempted attack on Russian President’s Kremlin residence”.
At least 21 people were killed in Russian airstrikes in the Cherson region of southern Ukraine, according to Ukrainian sources. Dozens more people were injured, said President Zelenskyj in the online service Telegram. The attacks hit “a train station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a supermarket and a gas station”.
The Ukrainian authorities announced a curfew for the regional capital of the same name, Kherson. It should apply from Friday evening to Monday morning, as the head of the military administration, Oleksander Prokudin, announced on Telegram.
A spring offensive by Ukraine against the Russian invasion troops is expected in the near future. Defense Minister Oleksiy Resnikov recently said that preparations for the counteroffensive were almost complete.
Meanwhile, in Berlin, the police were preparing for a visit from Zelensky. The head of state plans to come to Berlin the weekend after next at the invitation of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), a police spokesman said. Several newspapers reported that Zelenskyy will come to Berlin on May 13th.
The Ukrainian President is to be awarded the Charlemagne Prize on May 14 in Aachen. However, it was still unclear whether Selenskyj would be present at the ceremony in person or would be connected via video technology.
According to a media report, the authorities in Ukraine were upset about the announcement of Zelensky’s visit to Germany. The “t-online” portal, citing “circles close to the government in Ukraine”, reported that Kiev was “seriously disappointed” that “apparently very sensitive security policy information had been published deliberately from German sources”. This process was “irresponsible” and could “put into question a possible visit by the Ukrainian president”.