The Russian government, which accuses Ukraine of wanting to kill Vladimir Putin, orchestrated a drone attack on the Kremlin on Tuesday night with “the intention of bringing the war to the Russian population and creating the conditions for mobilization.” broader social” in the country, against the background of the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, according to analysts of the American Institute for the Study of War.

According to the American think tank, Russian authorities have recently taken steps to strengthen air defenses in the country, even in Moscow, so it is extremely unlikely that two drones would have passed through “multiple layers of air defenses and exploded or exploded.” was shot down directly over the Kremlin, showing spectacular images captured by multiple surveillance cameras.”

“It would be a great shame for Russia”

Geolocation images in January 2023 show that Russian authorities have deployed Panther anti-aircraft missile defense systems near Moscow to create defensive rings around the city.

ISW believes that an attack that cannot be detected by these air defense systems, managing to reach such an important target as the Senate Palace in the Kremlin, “would be a great shame for Russia.”

The Kremlin immediately accused Ukraine of committing a terrorist attack, and the official Russian reaction quickly gathered around this accusation.

If the drone attack had not been organized domestically and had occurred unexpectedly, “it is possible that Russia’s official response would initially have been much more disorganized” and less consistent and unequivocal in its characterization of the attack, ISW adds.

“The rapid and consistent presentation of the official Russian narrative about the attack suggests that Russia staged this incident very close to Victory Day, May 9, in order to present the war as existential to its domestic audience,” American analysts believe.

They note that some Russian nationalist bloggers may have used the drone strike over the Kremlin to call for an escalation of the war on the part of Russia, despite the fact that Moscow currently lacks the military capacity to do so.

“The Kremlin could be planning further false-flag operations and increased disinformation before the Ukrainian counteroffensive begins to bolster domestic support for the war.”

VIDEO Explosion over the Kremlin

A video that has surfaced on Russian social media shows a plume of smoke over the Kremlin, as Russian authorities on Wednesday accused Ukrainian armed forces of trying to kill President Vladimir Putin in a drone strike.

The nighttime video was initially posted early Wednesday on Telegram by a group of residents of the block across the Moscow River from the Kremlin, and was later picked up by Russian state media.

Later, a video of the impact also appeared on social networks:

“The Kyiv regime tried to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles. Two unmanned aerial vehicles were heading towards the Kremlin,” the Kremlin said in a statement, indicating that the drones were shot down “as a result of timely actions by the military and special services using combat radar systems.”

The same statement also states that “as a result of the terrorist attack, the President of the Russian Federation was not injured. His work schedule has not changed, he continues to work as usual.”

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