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In the midst of mysterious attacks on Russian territory and sabotage actions in Crimea, Russia surprised this Wednesday by directly accusing Ukraine of have tried to kill President Vladimir Putin with drones. The local media and social networks showed two of these devices exploding over the dome of the historic Senate Palace, the official residence of the president.
Thursday the kremlin he went further and claimed that the United States ordered the attack. Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, claimed, without showing evidence, that kyiv acted on Washington’s orders.
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So much Ukraine as USA have reacted to the accusations.
Here’s what is known about what really happened:
In the Russian social networks were spread videos from the moment of the fact. A first drone flew from the south of Moscow towards the Kremlin and exploded over the dome of the Senate Palace at 02:27 local time. (23:27 GMT). While the second drone coming from the east exploded at the same location at 02:43 local timedetailed the EFE agency.
Twelve hours later, at 2:35 p.m., the Russian Presidency issued a statement on the Kremlin website where he accused Ukraine of having tried to assassinate the president Vladimir Putin using drones. Minutes before the statement, the Moscow Mayor’s Office announced the ban on drone flights over the capital.
#Russia / #Ukraine ????????????????: #Ukrainian Forces carried out a drone attack against #Kremlin in #Moscow.
It seems like the attack might have been carried out with a UKRJET UJ-22 Airborne UAV; yet it’s very hard to get an exact result from the video. pic.twitter.com/XvEAFCJNB3
—War Noir (@war_noir) May 3, 2023
The EFE news agency stated that putin he almost never sleeps in the Kremlin and that he prefers to work from his residence in Novo-Ogariovo, on the outskirts of Moscow.
The spokesman for putinDmitry Peskov, said that the president was not in the Kremlin at the time.
According to the Kremlin, the “terrorist” attack occurred on purpose on the eve of the victory day and the military parade on May 9 in Red Square.
Ukraine responded that he is not aware of an attempted attack with drones against the kremlin and added that it does not use its means to attack other countries.
kyiv too accused Moscow of having prepared a “montage” to justify a possible escalation of his war offensive.
While White House Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby said that Russia “does nothing but lies” and stated that the United States does not encourage or permit Ukraine attack outside its borders. He added that it is still not clear what had happened in the Kremlin.
Russian state media published a photo of what they said was one of the crashed drones, which resembled a security device. UJ-22 attack Ukrainian-made, which is relatively small and versatile with the ability to fly in adverse weather conditions and travel up to 800 kilometers, CNN reported. There was no word on where or when the photo of the crashed drone was taken.
The EFE news agency explained that the distance from the Ukrainian border to the kremlin It is about 450 kilometers in a straight line.
According to the manufacturer UKRJET, the UJ-22 “can perform security tasks intelligence, search and rescue in the interest of the army, police and rescue services”. Although it does not present it as a combat drone, it can be used as an offensive weapon. An explosive-type payload is all you need to be employed as a kamikaze drone and crash it into a target or drop it on it.
one of these drones UJ-22 fell in February 10 kilometers south of Moscow.
Moscow has not presented evidence against Ukraine.
CNN analyzed the videos shared by the Russian state channel TVC. The first drone was seen over the Kremlin at 2:27 a.m. local time. It exploded against the Senate Palace, after which a fire broke out on its roof. The second drone registered at 2:43 a.m., and its fragments fell into the kremlin. This second device did not cause a fire because it exploded in midair.
The AFP agency specifies that Ukraine it has the technical capabilities to execute long-distance attacks inside Russia, having done it before.
“At this point, it could be the drone UJ-22 Ukrainian, or Mugin-5 Chinese-made, which apparently has already been used by Ukraine previously”Samuel Bendett, an unmanned military systems researcher and analyst with the Russian Studies program at the Center for Naval Analysis (CNA), told AFP. The PD-1 drone model may be another option, he added.
“He UJ-22 it has a long range and can potentially reach Moscow,” added Bendett, who emphasized that much is still unknown about the event.
Dominika Kunetovasenior researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH), considers that “it is possible that Ukraine has developed a long-range drone capability with which it could reach Moscow. Extending the attack distance has been the main objective of Ukraine regarding the innovation of unmanned systems.”
According to him Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based analyst group, Russia organized the attack “in an attempt to bring the war to the Russian national audience and set the conditions for broader social mobilization.”
Explain that recently Russia increased internal air defense, including within Moscow and therefore, it is extremely unlikely that two drones would have broken through “multiple layers of air defense and exploded or were shot down right over the Kremlin, providing spectacular footage captured by multiple cameras.”
If the drone attack had not been internally organized and unexpected, “it is very likely that the official Russian response initially would have been much more disorganized” and not as consistent and unequivocal in qualifying the attack, adds the ISW.
“The rapid and coherent presentation of an official Russian narrative about the attack suggests that Russia staged this incident very close to Victory Dayon May 9, to frame the war as existential for its national audience. US analysts added.
The EFE agency indicated that according to geolocated images from January of this year, Russia deployed Pantsir anti-aircraft systems near Moscow to create a defensive ring around the capital. In addition, the country reportedly has powerful radio-electronic fighting systems.
He Institute for the Study of War believes that an attack that could not be detected by these air defense systems and managed to hit such a high-profile target like the Kremlin Senate Palace “would be a great embarrassment for Russia.”
On the same Wednesday, influential figures in the Kremlin made direct threats to the Ukrainian president. Volodymyr ZelenskyThey even suggested that it should be removed.
“After today’s terrorist act, there is no other option than the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal,” said the former Russian president and vice president of the Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev.
While the chairman of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, He called for the use of weapons capable of destroying “the terrorist regime in kyiv.”
The leader of the Russian communists, Gennady Zyuganov, stated that the attack was “further proof that a total war is being waged against Russia” and that “The time has come to take action with determination and energy.”
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that Moscow reserves the right to “respond to flagrant terrorist actions in correspondence with the threat assessment” that kyiv created against the leadership of Russia.
In kyiv, one of Zelensky’s advisers, Mykhailo Podolyak, said that the action would be a false flag Russian action to justify a major attack on Ukraine.
The AP agency recalled that the nuclear doctrine of Russia says the country can use nuclear weapons if it suffers a nuclear attack or if it faces a conventional weapons attack that threatens “the very existence” of the Russian state.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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