UAV Drone Attack on KREMLIN, Assassination Attempt on Putin, considered as a Terrorist ATTACK

Video Transcript:

You're watching RT International or must be another busy news day with one story dominating the headlines. My name is Peter Scott and welcome to the programme. When we start with breaking news here on RT, the Kremlin says that the Ukraine launched drone strikes on the residents of President Putin in Moscow in the early hours of Wednesday. Russian officials say two drones were downed by electronic air defenses inside the Kremlin walls with no casualties or damage on the ground. By the Ukrainian officials say they know nothing about the attack and have denied any responsibility. Is what else? Moscow had to say. Two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin. As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of electronic countermeasures, the aircraft were disabled. Vladimir Putin was not inside his residence during the attack, which the Kremlin has called a terrorist act and an attempted assassination of the Russian President. But his spokesman says that Putin's schedule remains unchanged. His auntie's eager to die with more. Right now, of course, we have reaction pouring in, but to just briefly take you through as to what happened at around half past two in the night. There was an explosion over the Russian Kremlin in Moscow and, well, it is, of course, one of the most well defended and protected compounds in the world. And so, later in the day, we've learnt it from the official Kremlin press service who have said that there were two unmanned aerial vehicles headed towards the, well, the heart of Moscow really and one was shot down on its way and the other one was shot down just above the infrastructure of the Kremlin. You can see it in the video and unmanned aerial vehicle quite large, unlikely to be a commercial item. It flies past the red walls of the Kremlin and then explodes right next to the Russian flag over one of the domes. The Kremlin has already revealed that, well, nobody got injured, that there were no casualties again, no injured. And there was no damage dealt to the Kremlin's infrastructure, which, I mean, it indicates that the drone did not reach the intended target because it was, again, what looks like. It was shot midair and even the massive clock on the Spaska tower, if it hit that, that would have been, well, a massive PR victory to Ukraine. This video is, well, it is difficult to watch for anybody who's patriotic here in Russia. But again, there was no damage and no casualties dealt by this explosion. Of course, Kremlin has immediately blamed Ukraine for organising this attack. They have cited intelligence information that they have, that it was Kiev who was behind it, who was, who masterminded this attack. And they called it an assassination attempt at the Russian president, who wasn't present at the time in the Kremlin, but rather was in his residence in Novogaryov. Ukraine, in turn, has stepped forward and the adviser to the Ukrainian president and the Houston press secretary. They have said that, well, they have nothing to do with it. And that was likely a sleeper cell in Russia. Have a listen. We have no information regarding the so-called Night Attacks on the Kremlin. But as President Zelensky has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces to liberate its own territories, not to attack foreign ones. First of all, Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation. What for? This doesn't solve any military issue. The emergence of unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles at energy facilities or on Kremlin's territory can only indicate the guerrilla activities of local resistance forces. In a word, something is happening in Russian Federation, but definitely without Ukraine's drones over the Kremlin. Well, despite the claim that he makes that Ukraine is waging a defensive war that it has no interest in attacking the Kremlin, this is simply not true. Lately, Ukrainian channels have been spreading a fake video of a drone flying over the red square claiming it was their FPV drone, first person view drone. That video was fake, in fact, it was taken off a video on YouTube published years ago, and that turned out to be simply false. And indeed, there have been calls from some very powerful people in Ukraine and promises of riches and money effectively. There was a bounty offered to anybody who manages to fly and well, to detonate a drone over the Kremlin well around victory day. Have a listen again. Do you think Ukrainians will fly to Moscow? I think that it is a necessary moment. That is that the 9th of May is a very good moment because I read that Putin is planning a parade on red square and there will be a lot of vehicles. That is they will be, as that say, very legitimate military targets. And I think we, the whole community making drones, we should really make a holiday for them. So indeed, it is very telling of the timing here because Russia celebrates the 1st of May, as the World Trade Union Day. Russia has a big massive festival on the 9th of May upcoming. And while this attack did not happen on the date, it is certainly falls within the so-called May holidays, which is something that it's called in Russia. It falls within this frame, within this window. And certainly it is quite symbolic. Now, this is the first time that Russia has accused Ukraine of carrying out such attacks. What other examples have they been? Well, absolutely accused and has paid zero attention to Ukraine will vehemently denying having anything to do with it. So, Ukraine's denials they don't really play any role here in terms of how Moscow might respond to this. Now, of course, the biggest attacks that have happened, probably one of the biggest happened almost exactly a month ago that was the assassination of a Russian walker respondent Vlad Lentatarsky, who was – it was his night in St. Petersburg, a bunch of his followers and his fans. They came to listen to him publicly, making a public speech, making a public address in one of the cafes in St. Pete's. There was an IED, was carried into the place, into the venue, and it detonated shortly afterwards. Last year, in August, Dadya Dugene, a Russian journalist and political activist, she was murdered as well, assassinated, I have to say, because it was a car bombing, an explosive device was put under the hood of her vehicle, and well, she was killed as a result. Also, of course, what it all started was the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, which rendered a part of the bridge useless, and basically it was rendered inoperable to a degree. So Russia blamed Ukraine for that as well. Again, the Ukrainian Special Services, they denied any allegations, but again, Moscow retaliated heavily, and the Crimean Bridge was the point of no return. That was when Russia's missiles started to target Ukraine's critical military and energy infrastructure in a bid to stop the flow of fuel and in bid to paralyze the logistics of the Ukrainian army on the front. But I mean, there's a whole array of smaller attacks in Krasnodar, in the regions of Russia that are neighboring the war zone in Ukraine. They have been attacked against the railroad system of Russia, attacks against fuel storage facilities in Crimea, in Sevastopol. So all sorts of things. If we were to talk about some of the more remote attacks, because this one, what happened here in Moscow is certainly one of those. And I mean, of course, the chances that this drone crossed more than 600 kilometers all the way from the front line to the Russian Kremlin, it is, I'd say, it's quite miniscule, but we'll have to, of course, see what experts have to say about this. But the Ukrainian, the Ukrainian, the UAVs, they have tried to attack Russia's long-range aviation in Seratov, for instance. Also they have tried to attack Kaluga. I mean, we'd have to show a map really for a foreign viewer to understand as to where that is. But it is also hundreds of kilometers away from the Russian border with Ukraine, from the Russian border with the Denetsk and Lugansk republics. And indeed, lately, the Ukrainians, they have indeed stepped up these attacks there. Because there's one thing that I can agree with the adviser to the Ukrainian president. These attacks, they serve zero military purpose, which shows how desperate they are for PR for good pictures, how eager they are to, how much they are in need of painting a picture of victory and basically just hyping up the counteroffensive that have been teasing for quite a while.