Moscow has accused Washington of orchestrating the drone attack on the Kremlin, a claim the U.S. denies.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for Vladimir Putin, said the U.S. was behind the drone attack on the Kremlin after initially making the case that Ukraine was trying to assassinate the Russian leader.
In video of the incident, which Ukraine denies involvement in, two explosions can be seen.
KREMLIN DRONE ATTACK
— The Spectator Index (@spectatorindex) May 3, 2023
- Russia says two Ukrainian drones attacked Kremlin overnight
- Drones downed with no victims or material damage to the Kremlin
- Moscow says it was a terrorist attack and attempt on Putin's life
- Russia says it reserves right to respond when and how it… pic.twitter.com/loZA6c3Fvd
“We know well that the decisions about such actions and such terrorist acts are made not in Kyiv, but in Washington,” Peskov said. “Kyiv then does what it’s told.”
The White House denied the allegation.
Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Thursday morning, White House spokesman John Kirby said “Peskov is just lying there, pure and simple.”
"Obviously it's a ludicrous claim," Kirby later said on CNN. "The United States had nothing to do with this. We don't even know exactly what happened here… but I can assure you the United States had had no role in it whatsoever.… We neither encourage nor do we enable Ukraine to strike outside Ukraine's borders."
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskyy, meanwhile, argued “Russia has no victories.”
“[Putin] can’t further motivate his society, he can’t send his soldiers into death anymore, and he can’t motivate his country anymore… now he needs to find any possibility to motivate them,” he continued.
According to the National Review, there’s another reason the assassination theory doesn’t hold weight: “The idea that Putin was a target of the attack is also far-fetched as it has been widely publicized that when Putin stays in Moscow, he stays in a bunker in Novo-Ogaryovo.”