US officials said a drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month was likely carried out by Ukraine, which has carried out a series of attacks on Russian targets.
Russia has claimed that Ukrainian forces tried to kill President Vladimir Putin in a failed attack on May 3.
Russia said two drones were used in an “assassination attempt” on the president’s residence inside the Kremlin complex, but were disabled by Russian defense systems.
One drone caught fire and the other exploded.
They did very little damage and no one was injured.
US intelligence agencies do not know which unit carried out the attack, and it was unclear whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his superiors knew about the operation, the New York Times reported.
The attack has given the US pause for concern. The Biden administration has provided billions of dollars in military aid to Ukrainian forces but has grown concerned that Russia could blame the US and retaliate by expanding its war beyond Ukraine’s borders.
The U.S. intercepted Ukrainian communications in which officials said they believed their country was responsible for the operation without oversight from top officials, including Zelensky or his top deputies.
U.S. officials believe the operation was likely carried out by one of Ukraine’s special forces or intelligence units, the Times reported.
“We did not attack Putin,” Zelensky said after the attack.
He added that Ukraine fights within its own borders and keeps its weapons for defense and not for attacks on Moscow.
Intelligence experts, however, do not agree that Ukraine is capable of such an attack, and believe it could be a Russian false flag operation intended to give Russia a reason to escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine.
“I stand by my assessment that the drone strikes — like the industrial sabotage targeting Russia’s Nord Stream pipeline — were a false flag operation orchestrated by Putin’s regime. Without outside aid, Ukraine would have Unable to act,” former Defense Intelligence Agency official Rebecca Koffler told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration has warned Ukraine against launching attacks inside Russia that Moscow could escalate the conflict and, despite demonstrating Kiev’s ability to penetrate deep into Russia, the attacks themselves have not been very effective.
US officials have also publicly denied supporting the use of US military equipment for attacks outside Ukraine.
Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the president’s office of Ukraine, previously dismissed the drone incident as a false flag to justify retaliation.
“Russia is clearly preparing for a large-scale terrorist attack. That’s why it first detains a large allegedly subversive group in Crimea. And then this demonstration of ‘drones over the Kremlin.’ Does,” Podoliak wrote on social media.
