Russia accuses Ukraine of trying to execute Vladimir Putin through a drone attack on the Kremlin. Images from the alleged incident show a drone exploding just above one of the domes of the Russian headquarters, Reuters reports.
– It is difficult to say whether this has actually happened, or is an arranged attack on the Russian side, says Johan Huovinen, lieutenant colonel, Swedish Armed Forces.
The accusations came from the Russian government on Wednesday and were relayed via several of the country’s state media. Johan Huovinen is a lieutenant colonel and a teacher at FHS, he has taken part in the news report and the associated video clip.
According to him, Ukraine certainly has the ability to carry out a similar attack to the one allegedly carried out – but believes that it could just as well be Russian propaganda.
– What we know is that Ukraine has this ability, that is, UAVs that can operate over 700 kilometers. But there’s very little information to be gleaned from this clip, so it’s hard to make any real assessment of it. It could just as well be staged from the Russian side, he says.
Russian authorities have not presented any evidence for their accusations. Ukraine has, via Volodymyr Zelenskyj’s adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, denied the country’s involvement.
According to Podolyak, such an attack would achieve nothing for Ukraine in the war and would only provoke Moscow to use more radical means, writes al-Jazeera.
Kremlin: A terrorist attack
The Kremlin has warned that Russia sees no obstacle to carrying out counter-attacks in retaliation – calling the alleged attack an act of “terrorist”.
“The Kremlin has assessed these actions as a planned act of terrorism and an assassination attempt on the president – on the eve of Victory Day and the upcoming parade on May 9”, writes the Russian state news agency RIA.
One of Russia’s retaliatory attacks could be an attack on the government quarters in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, al-Jazira reports, citing Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian defense analyst. According to him, Putin was probably not in the Kremlin when the attack was carried out.
– It seems that Putin is not in the Kremlin at night. He is there during working hours and does not live there, says Pavel Felgenhauer.
Leaked data to support the Russian claim
According to Huovinen, there is information in the Pentagon leak that suggests that Ukrainian intelligence has had the ambition to carry out attacks inside Russia, but was advised against it by the CIA.
– We know that information was leaked earlier from the United States where it emerged that the Ukrainian intelligence service would like to carry out attacks inside Russia, but the American intelligence service advised against this, he says.
The Russian accusations could also be interpreted as a Russian attempt to dampen the Ukrainian attacks on Russian-occupied land in Ukraine, according to Huovinen.
– This could be a way for Russia to de-escalate the situation with Ukrainian attacks in Crimea, most recently on oil depots and railways. This could be a way of trying to get the West to put pressure on Ukraine to stop these attacks, he says.