Various competent Russian bodies and departments are investigating the facts of the attack on the Kremlin. And the official representative of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov said during his briefing for the media: “Of course, what happened is subject to a thorough and immediate investigation. You know that the investigative committee and the necessary authorities are dealing with all this.” Peskov added in this regard that the president’s agenda has not changed in any way: he forms and today works in the Kremlin; Today there are no large mass events.
The Kremlin stressed that the attack on the residence of President Vladimir Putin is a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the head of state.
The press service reported that the Kiev regime tried “on Wednesday” to hit the residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin with two drones.
On the Russian side, marches on Thursday hit oil refineries in areas close to Ukraine, the latest in a series of attacks in the days leading up to May 9 military celebrations of Victory Day, an event of great importance to the Kremlin.
And the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, considered that Americans and Western countries are behind everything that the Kiev regime does. Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel: “Washington and London are primarily responsible for everything that the Kiev regime does,” adding: “They destroyed the legitimate government in Ukraine and put adventurers at the helm of leadership, but provided them with money and weapons, and instilled in them a sense of the absolute possibility of everything. Nothing and impunity, and provide them with political cover and military support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country did not attack Moscow or Russian President Vladimir Putin. He added during a press conference in Helsinki:
“We are not attacking Putin or Moscow, we are fighting on our own territory.”
For its part, the Ukrainian army announced on Thursday morning that it shot down 18 of 24 drones launched by Russia overnight.
The Ukrainian Air Force reported on Telegram: “The Russians launched 24 Shahed 136/131 drones. The Ukrainian Air Force, in cooperation with other air defense units, shot down 18 drones.
The head of the military administration of the city of Kyiv, Sergei Popko, said that, according to preliminary information, “air defense forces over Kiev destroyed all enemy missiles and drones.”
Popko added that this is the third day of attempts to strike Kyiv in May. “There have been no such intense strikes in our city since the beginning of this year,” he added.
He said that fragments of drones fell on different districts of Kyiv, but there were no casualties.
Other cities in Ukraine came under shelling on Thursday, including the coastal city of Odessa in the country’s southwest, which was the target of “15 marches,” including 12 “shot down,” according to local government spokesman Serhiy Prachuk.
The city of Kherson, close to the southern front, which had declared a 58-hour curfew since Friday evening, was the target of “heavy” shelling on Wednesday that left 23 people dead and 46 injured, according to the latest official figures released Thursday.
The intensification of Russian strikes against Ukraine in recent days comes at a time when Kiev has announced the completion of preparations for the large-scale attack it intends to launch, and Russia and Crimea, which Moscow has annexed, have witnessed a series of large-scale strikes and sabotage operations.
As emergency services told TASS and RIA Novosti, the fire, which was later extinguished by fire brigades, broke out in an oil depot at the Yelsk Oil Refinery in the Krasnodar Territory as a result of an attack by an “unidentified drone”.
About an hour later, Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov region bordering Ukraine, reported that a drone had been shot down at a local oil refinery near the village of Kiselevka.
According to the same source, the plane caused an explosion and a fire, which the refinery workers put out “immediately.”