Zelensky denies assassination attempt on Putin

Ukraine denies attacking Putin in alleged drone strike on the Kremlin and accuses Moscow of being the mastermind

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied that his country is responsible for what Russia believes was an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin following an apparent drone strike in the Kremlin.

"We are not attacking Putin or Moscow," Zelensky told a news conference. press in Helsinki.

"As President Zelensky has stated many times, Ukraine is using all means at its disposal to liberate its own territory, to attack others," Nykyforov added.

Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the Kremlin with drones overnight in a failed attempt to kill President Vladimir Putin. A senior Ukrainian presidential official said Kyiv had nothing to do with the purported incident https://t.co/Nih63r20Vn pic.twitter.com/U9dsfYVxzi

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 3, 2023

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had seen Moscow reports on alleged drone attack Ukrainians against the Kremlin, but "cannot corroborate them in any way."

"We just don't know," Blinken said Wednesday during an event in I live from the Washington Post.

Russia called the incident a "terrorist act" and blamed Ukraine, a charge that, according to Nykyforov, it was better aimed at Moscow.

Zelensky in Finland denied that Ukraine had attacked the Kremlin: “We are not attacking Putin or Moscow. We are fighting on our own territory… We don’t have enough, you know, weapons for this.” pic.twitter.com/zjM704dKOo

— Spriter (@Spriter99880) May 3, 2023

"A terrorist attack is the destruction of blocks of residential buildings. in Dnipro and Uman, or a missile on a line from Kramatorsk station and many other tragedies," he said. "What happened in Moscow is obviously a mood swing on the eve of May 9."

The Kremlin's press service called the drone strike an "attempt on the president's life" and a "terrorist act."

"Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever it is see fit," he added.

A bit of history: Kiev is about 862 kilometers from Moscow. Russia has blamed Ukraine for several attempted drone strikes on territory Russian, including one earlier this year when the region's governor Moscow's said a Ukrainian drone had crashed near the city of Gubastovo, southeast of the capital.