US believes Ukrainians may be responsible for drone attack on Kremlin: Report
Mike Brest
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The United States believes a Ukrainian special military unit is responsible for the drone attack against the Kremlin earlier this month, according to a new report.
U.S. intelligence agencies have limited information on the assault, which took place earlier this month. Their preliminary assessments were reached, at least in part, through intercepted communications of both Russian and Ukrainian officials. Anonymous officials told the New York Times that the intelligence community is unsure of whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his administration was aware of the operation.
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The Kremlin claimed on May 3 that it downed two Ukrainian drones over the Kremlin, an accusation Ukrainian officials denied. Russian President Vladimir Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the attack, which injured no one.
Russian officials accused the U.S. of directing Ukraine to attack the Kremlin, a claim that U.S. officials quickly denounced. National Security Council Coordinator John Kirby, the White House’s de facto national security spokesman, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments were “ludicrous.”
“I can assure you the United States had no role in it whatsoever,” Kirby said, adding that the U.S. does not “endorse, we do not encourage, we do not support attacks on individual leaders.”
The National Security Council declined to comment.
The attack against the Kremlin appears to be one in a series of limited operations the Ukrainian military or intelligence community has carried out in Russian territory. Russia launched a “counter-terror operation” in the Belgorod region earlier this week, following a pair of pro-Ukraine militias moving to “liberate” border towns from Putin’s rule.
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“The Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps have liberated the settlement of Kozinka in Belgorod Oblast,” the Freedom of Russia Legion said on social media, per a Ukrainian media translation. “Their units have entered the settlement of Graivoron.”
Pro-Russian military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky was killed in an explosion at a St. Petersburg cafe in early April while Daria Dugina, the daughter of prominent Russian imperialist political philosopher Alexander Dugan, was killed in a car bombing in August.