US intelligence agencies believe a drone attack on the Kremlin in May was likely orchestrated by one of Ukraine’s military or intelligence units. On this subject said The New York Times (NYT) has anonymized US officials.
According to them, US intelligence does not know which unit carried out the attack and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or other senior Ukrainian officials knew about the plans.
According to the publication, the preliminary estimates of the American intelligence agencies are based in particular on intercepted messages in which Russian officials blame the attack on Ukraine. Other intercepted conversations indicate that Ukrainian officials have also declared responsibility for Ukraine, the newspaper writes.
US intelligence has no concrete evidence as to which Ukrainian officials or units were involved in the attack, US officials said in a conversation with the NYT. Therefore, they note, their level of confidence that the Ukrainian government directly authorized the attack is “low”.
On the afternoon of May 3, the press service of the President of Russia announced the destruction of two drones over the Kremlin. The press service noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the attack and that Moscow considered the incident a “planned terrorist act” and an attack on the head of state. State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin called for recognition of Ukraine as a terrorist state. After the attack, the Board of Inquiry opened a criminal investigation into the attack. In Kyiv, there is talk of non-involvement in the drone attack on the Kremlin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainians are “not attacking Putin or Moscow”, but “fighting on their own territory”. Zelenskyy expressed the opinion that the attack could have been organized by the Russian side to “motivate society” and accuse Ukraine of “certain crimes”. Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the presidential office, speculated about “guerrilla activity by local resistance forces”.
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