Russia reserves the right to retaliate “anywhere and anytime it deems necessary” in response to the drone attack on President Vladimir Putins residence, the Kremlin has said, according to a media report.
Officials said two Ukrainian drones attempted to strike Kremlin early on Wednesday morning, but the raid was thwarted, RT reported.
A senior Ukrainian presidential official said on Wednesday that Kyiv had nothing to do with any drone attack on the Kremlin, and that such actions achieved nothing for Kyiv on the battlefield and would only provoke Russia to take more radical action.
Presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to Reuters that the allegation that Kyiv was behind the attack, and Russia’s arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs, could indicate Moscow was preparing for a large-scale “terrorist” attack against Ukraine in coming days.
“Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks,” Podolyak said.
Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin.
Podolyak said: “In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both ‘reports about an attack on the Kremlin’ and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea.. clearly indicates the preparation of a large scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days.”
The President was not hurt in the “terrorist attack”, and the Kremlin complex did not suffer any damage, Putin’s office said, as per the report.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RIA Novosti that the Russian leader was not in Kremlin when the raid happened, adding that Putin was working at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence near Moscow on Wednesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Finland on Wednesday for talks with Nordic leaders on his country’s war with Russia and its relations with Europe, governments of the region said.
Zelensky will hold bilateral talks with Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto followed by a news conference before joining a regional summit and a second meeting with media, Niinisto’s office said in a statement. The wider summit will include Niinisto as well as the prime ministers of Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.
“The theme of the summit is Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the Nordic countries’ continued support for Ukraine, Ukraine’s relationship with the EU and NATO, and Ukraine’s initiative for a just peace,” Niinisto’s office said.
The Ukrainian president’s visit to Finland, one of only a few journeys he has made abroad since Russia’s invasion last year, was announced only after his arrival amid tight security arrangements in the Finnish capital.
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