Has Ukraine planned an attack on Vladimir Putin? Many questions are still open. But one Putin confidante in particular is now in a bad position.
It’s just a short message with five paragraphs. But they caused a stir not only in Russia: On Wednesday afternoon, the Kremlin announced that there had been an attack by two drones on the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The representative of the President blamed Ukraine.
But how exactly is the attack supposed to have happened – and is such an attack by Ukraine realistic? t-online gives the most important answers:
What exactly is Russia accusing Ukraine of?
On Wednesday afternoon, the Kremlin published a statement about the alleged attack: During the night, the “Kiev regime” tried to attack Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Kremlin.
The alleged attack is said to have been carried out by two drones. However, the Russian air defense is said to have brought it down. Moscow assessed the incident as a planned assassination attempt on the president and spoke of a “terrorist attack”. However, there are no casualties or visible damage. The Kremlin also reserves the right to take retaliatory measures. The incident came just before the celebrations on May 9, when Russia traditionally celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Germany in World War II.
However, according to his spokesman Dmitri Peskov, Putin himself is not in the Kremlin, but in his Novo-Ogaryovo estate, which is located in the west of the capital. There are also several videos circulating online that are supposed to show the alleged attack.
The recordings also show that two people are said to be on the dome roof before the explosion. None of the above information could be verified independently. In response, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin imposed a ban on drone flights in Moscow.
Attack on the Kremlin? Videos are said to show the drone attack. (What: t-online)
Ukraine denied any responsibility. “We are not attacking either Putin or Moscow, we are fighting on our own territory and defending our villages and towns,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Wednesday. Moscow is dreaming up something like this because Russia has already lost the war against Ukraine that began a little over 14 months ago. The Kremlin is trying to motivate its soldiers for the war against Kiev.
In an initial reaction from the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the attack could not be confirmed. “We just don’t know,” Blinken told the Washington Post newspaper.
What is known about the building from the videos?
The dome seen in the videos belongs to the Russian Senate Palace. It is the official residence of the President of Russia, in the past it was also the residence of Lenin. The building now houses Putin’s office, the National Security Council meeting building and the President’s library.
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Putin also receives international guests there: in the palace is the room with the now famous long table, where Chancellor Olaf Scholz sat before the start of the Russian invasion.
Is Ukraine capable of such an attack?
Basically, there have been several incidents on Russian soil since the Russian invasion of Ukraine: the US non-governmental organization “Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project” (ACLED), which the “Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung” recently quoted, has listed April 2022 a total of 602 such “events”. Here you can read more about it.
However, the regions that are located in the Ukrainian border area are mainly affected. Attacks are repeatedly reported in Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod. A large oil depot burned there shortly after the start of the war.
