White House, Kremlin trade charges over Putin ‘assassination’ drone attack

Joe Biden’s White House and Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin lobbed new charges Thursday over who was behind a mysterious drone attack on the Russian seat of government Wednesday that officials in Moscow claim was an assassination attempt.

Russian officials are now blaming Washington for an apparent strike by two drones on the Kremlin this week, saying Ukrainian officials wouldn’t have launched such an audacious attack in the heart of Moscow unless the Biden administration had approved. Mr. Putin reportedly was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby dismissed the Russian claim as “ludicrous,” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a surprise visit Thursday to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to press for war crimes charges against invading Russian forces, said he was “not interested” in the Kremlin’s opinion.

“One thing I can tell you for certain is that the U.S. did not have any involvement with this incident, contrary to [the Kremlin’s] lies, and that’s just what they are — lies,” Mr. Kirby told reporters in Washington.

But Dmitry Peskov, Mr. Putin’s chief spokesman, claimed the Biden administration not only condoned the drone attack but was the driving force behind it. Mr. Peskov provided no evidence to support his assertion.

“We know very well that decisions about such actions … are made not in Kyiv but in Washington,” Mr. Peskov told reporters. “Kyiv only does what it is told to do.”

SEE ALSO: White House says Russia is lying about U.S. involvement in drone strike

Ukraine is believed to be behind a number of suspected drone attacks inside Russia in recent months, including a strike on Wednesday that caused a massive fire at an oil facility near the Kerch Strait bridge which connects Russia to occupied Crimea.

“The terrorist activity and acts of sabotage by the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been gathering unprecedented momentum,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday in a statement. “Crimes like this cannot go unanswered.”

Some analysts said the drone attack could be a “false flag” mission staged by Russia itself to sow discord between Kyiv and its backers just before an expected spring offensive by Ukrainian forces. The U.S. and NATO allies have expressed concern in the past that Ukrainian operations inside Russia using Western arms and intelligence could increase the risk of a direct clash between Russia and the West.

“The United States is certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday. Mr. Kirby said U.S. officials are still gathering information on just what happened in the purported Kremlin attack.

Private analysts said it was also suspicious that, according to the Russian official account, two hostile drones were able to penetrate Moscow’s dense air defenses and reach the Kremlin — a strike that just happened to be filmed by government cameras.

Moscow’s envoy to the U.S. called the false-flag allegations “blasphemous and deceitful.” Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov said such statements were “striking in their cynicism and absurdity” and called on Washington to acknowledge that Ukraine was behind the drone attack.

SEE ALSO: Russian ambassador to U.S. denies Moscow staged drone strike on the Kremlin

“We hoped that the [Biden] administration would have the guts and dignity to condemn this terrorist act,” Mr. Antonov said Thursday on his Telegram social messaging site. He said Russia will respond to the drone attacks at a time and in a manner of its own choosing.

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Thursday warned Russia against using the attack as an “excuse” to escalate the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, U.S. diplomats in Ukraine warned Americans living there about the recent uptick in Russian drone and missile strikes across the country and ‘inflammatory” rhetoric coming from Moscow.

“The U.S. Embassy urges U.S. citizens to observe air alarms, shelter appropriately [and] follow guidance from local authorities,” embassy officials said.