Russia claims Ukraine tried to carry out a drone attack on the Kremlin in Moscow overnight Wednesday. According to Russia, the intention was to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. The country’s ex-president now says that Ukraine’s president must be “eliminated”.
Ukraine denies that it had anything to do with the alleged drone attack. Nor has it been independently confirmed.
During a press conference in Helsinki with the Nordic prime ministers, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi comments on the Russian information.
– We are not attacking Russia. We defend our towns and villages.
– We did not attack Putin. We leave it (punishing Putin) to the tribunal, he added, referring to the future possible international tribunal for war crimes due to Russia’s invasion.
But Russian ex-president Dmitry Medvedev turns the tone even higher in a statement on Wednesday evening in which he calls for the “physical elimination” of Zelensky.
“A pinch of salt”
“After today’s terrorist attack, there is no other way out than the physical elimination of Zelensky” and his circle, threatens Dmitry Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008-2012 and prime minister from 2012-2020, and is now the hawkish vice-chairman of Russia’s Security Council.
According to Joakim Paasikivi, lieutenant colonel at the Defense Academy, Dmitry Medvedev has been given the role of the crazy warmonger.
– It is he who threatens with nuclear weapons and it is also he who now goes out and talks about murdering Zelenskyj, says Paasikivi.
At the same time, Paasikivi finds it very difficult to see what Russia gains from a possible attack on the Ukrainian president.
Zelenskyi explains his theory about Russia’s motive for blaming the attack on Ukraine.
– Simple. Russia can no longer motivate its people to die in battle.
Mychajlo Podoljak, a close adviser to President Volodymyr Zelenskyj, said earlier on Wednesday that such an attack “does not solve any military objectives”.
And US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he takes the information with “a grain of salt”.
Objects explode
Images, the authenticity of which has also not been verified by any independent party, have been circulating on social media during the day. Including BBC shows from online video clips an object flying over the Kremlin before exploding.
According to Russian state media, it is an assassination attempt on President Vladimir Putin. In a statement, the Kremlin calls the whole thing a “planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt on the President of the Russian Federation”.
Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin also reacts strongly – he demands that the “Kiev regime be crushed”.
Flights are prohibited
We will demand the use of weapons that have the ability to crush the terror regime in Kiev, he says.
According to Russian information, two Ukrainian drones have been shot down.
Remnants of the drones reportedly fell inside the Kremlin but without anyone being injured, according to the statement.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced that drone flights have been banned over the capital following the incident, unless a special permit has been issued by “state authorities”.
None of the information has been confirmed by an independent party.