Russia’s claims that U.S. plotted drone attack at Kremlin quickly denied

Russia said on Thursday that the United States was behind what it said was a drone attack on the Kremlin aimed at killing President Vladimir Putin, while Moscow forces fired other combat drones at Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without providing evidence, said Ukraine had acted on US orders with a drone strike on the Kremlin stronghold early Wednesday.

Kyiv has denied involvement in the incident, which follows a string of explosions over the past week targeting freight trains and oil depots in western Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea. Moscow also blamed Ukraine for the attack.

“Try to deny this [attack on the Kremlin], both in Kyiv and in Washington, which, of course, is absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that the decision about the action, about the terrorist attack, was not made in Kiev but in Washington,” Peskov told reporters.

The Kremlin says it reserves the right to retaliate. Peskov said on Thursday that an important investigation was underway and that any response would be considered carefully and balanced.

Separately, Russia’s foreign ministry said the drone strikes “will not go unanswered” and indicated that Kyiv has no desire to end the 15-month war at the negotiating table.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby quickly refuted Peskov’s claims.

“I can assure you that there is no involvement of the United States in this matter. Whatever it is, it does not involve us,” Kirby told MSNBC in an interview. “We have nothing to do with this.”

WATCH | Blinken is very skeptical of the Kremlin’s accusations:

The United States does not support or allow Ukraine to attack outside its borders, he added.

Kirby said it’s still unclear what happened in the Kremlin.

“We still don’t know what happened” and Washington is still assessing the situation, Kirby said.

Kyiv, Odesa are targeted

Earlier, Russia fired two dozen combat drones in Ukraine, striking Kyiv for the third time in four days and also striking a university campus in the Black Sea city of Odesa, ahead of a major counter-attack by Ukraine to recapture the territory it controls.

There were no reports of casualties.

Kyiv city government said Russia may have fired ballistic missiles as well as drones, but they were all shot down.

“Russia attacked Kyiv using loitering Shahed ammunition and missiles, likely ballistic type,” he said.

Ballistic missiles are difficult to shoot down, and going down could show Ukraine using sophisticated Western-provided air defense systems against them.

In total, air defenses shot down 18 of the 24 “kamikaze” drones in the pre-dawn attack, officials said. Of the 15 drones fired at Odesa, 12 went down but three hit the university campus, the southern military command said.

The attack in the Donetsk region damaged a power station owned by the power company DTEK Energo, but there were no casualties, DTEK and the Energy Minister said.

The death toll from the Russian offensive in and around Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday rose to 23, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

“The enemy’s target is where we live. Their target is our lives, and the lives of our children,” he said in an online video on Thursday, after a hypermarket, train station and residential building were hit.

Russia denies targeting civilians in Ukraine.

‘Full Power of Justice’

Russian emergency services quickly extinguished a fire at the Ilsky oil refinery, one of the largest in southern Russia, after a drone strike set the product storage facility on fire, the TASS news agency reported.

Ukraine has rarely claimed responsibility for what Moscow says are frequent drone attacks on military infrastructure and targets, particularly in areas close to Russia.

WATCH / ‘Aggressors must feel the power of justice’: Zelenskyy:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the International Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague on Thursday and said Putin should be tried for the war.

The ICC in March issued an arrest warrant for Putin for allegedly deporting children from Ukraine.

“Aggressors must feel the power of justice. This is our historical responsibility,” Zelenskyy said in his speech.

Russia, which is not a member of the ICC and denies jurisdiction, has denied committing atrocities during a “special military operation” in Ukraine, which it says is necessary to protect its own security against an aggressive and aggressive West.

Zelenskyy, whose country has received substantial Western military and financial support, has pledged to drive all invading Russian forces back to the border established in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

There are currently no peace talks to end the war, which has devastated Ukrainian towns and cities, killed thousands and driven millions from their homes.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that it knew Pope Francis was thinking about ways to end the war, but did not know a detailed peace plan from the Vatican.