ukraine drone attack kremlin
© Ostorozhno Novosti/Handout via ReutersA still image taken from video shows a flying object exploding in an intense burst of light near the dome of the Kremlin Senate building in Moscow, Russia, May 3, 2023
Ukraine is denying Russian officials' claims that it attempted to carry out a drone attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday. The country's leaders say that they only see downsides to attempting such an attack, since it'd likely invite Russian escalation.

"Russia is clearly preparing a large-scale terrorist attack." Mykhailo Podolyak wrote on Twitter this morning after videos of the claimed attack circulated on social media.

"Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation," he asserted. "What for? This does not solve any military issue. But it gives [Russia] grounds to justify its attacks on civilians." Podolyak wrote that he believes the attack indicates "the guerrilla activities of local resistance forces."

Earlier today, Russia claimed that its "electronic warfare systems" had taken down two drones near the Kremlin, which it said were aimed at President Vladimir Putin's residence. Russia's state-owned TASS outlet reported that there were no casualties in the attack and that Putin was not in Moscow at the time.


Videos circulated on social media of an object crashing into the roof of the Kremlin's senate building and exploding. Their veracity has not been confirmed.

The Kremlin is already using the attack as a pretext for escalation, characterizing the incident "as a premeditated terrorist attack and an attempted assassination of the president of the Russian federation."

And a senior Russian lawmaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, said: "We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime."