Russia on Thursday accused the United States of having sponsored the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Kremlin which it claims to have foiled the day before, "a lie" according to Washington.
Amid the exchange of accusations, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky demanded from The Hague, where he was on a surprise visit to the International Criminal Court (ICC), the creation of a special international tribunal to try the "crime of aggression "which Moscow allegedly committed against his country.
On the ground, Russian strikes have been increasing in intensity for several days, with the US State Department declaring that it has identified 145 since May 1.
Ukraine, which claims to be completing its preparations for a major offensive, said it shot down about 30 explosive drones sent by Russia on Thursday.
In the evening in Kiev, victim of a wave of attacks the previous night, explosions were again heard by AFP journalists, the mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, reporting "explosions and fires" .
However, in a clarification a few hours later, the Ukrainian Air Force admitted having had to destroy one of its own drones, a Bayraktar TB2 (Turkish-made), "during a regular flight in the Kyiv region".
"The uncontrolled presence of the drone in the sky of the capital" could indeed "have had undesirable consequences", she explained before adding that no one had been injured.
"It's a shame, but it's technology and these things happen," she added, referring to a "technical malfunction".
But it was other drones that had previously made an impression: on Wednesday, Moscow claimed to have intercepted two of these Ukrainian devices which targeted the Kremlin, denouncing an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin.
A day later, a great blur still surrounds this supposed strike attempt, the most spectacular attributed to Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive in February 2022.
The Russian authorities have made public no evidence and it is impossible to authenticate the videos broadcast by some Russian media on which we can see a small drone approaching the Kremlin and then exploding in a sheaf of flames.
Ukraine has in any case firmly denied any link with this affair, even accusing Russia of having "staged" it to justify a possible future escalation of the conflict, again without providing any evidence.
"The efforts of Kyiv and Washington to deny responsibility are completely ridiculous. Decisions about such attacks are not taken in Kyiv but in Washington," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, without substantiating his claims. charges.
The United States "has nothing to do with this affair," retorted John Kirby, spokesman for the White House National Security Council.
The head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, for his part urged Moscow not to use this supposed Ukrainian attack “as an excuse to continue the escalation” in the conflict.
The Russian capital is located some 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and the seat of power is in an ultra-secure district. In this context, the allegations of a Ukrainian drone incursion surprised many analysts.
Russian public television broadcast images on Thursday showing, it said, Mr. Putin during a working meeting inside the Kremlin, his first public appearance since the announcement of the supposed attack.
Security measures will be "strengthened", assured Mr. Peskov, as the celebrations of May 9 mark the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 loom.
In Moscow, the big military parade planned for Red Square is maintained and Mr. Putin will give a speech there, according to his spokesperson.
The Russian Foreign Ministry estimated Thursday that "the terrorist and sabotage activities of the Ukrainian armed forces" were taking "an unprecedented scale".
Attacks have indeed multiplied in recent days, with in particular several drone incursions and major railway sabotage.
On Thursday, drones hit two oil refineries in southwestern Russia, near Ukraine. In the evening, another was shot down near a Russian air base in Sevastopol, in annexed Crimea.
If Kiev has not claimed any of these actions, as usual, their intensification comes at a time when Ukraine claims to have completed its preparations for a vast spring offensive announced for weeks.
Rumors are rife among analysts about the date of this attack and its targets, with in any case the stated aim of reconquering the occupied territories in the east and south.
During his trip to The Hague, where the International Criminal Court (ICC) sits, Mr. Zelensky called for the creation of a special court to punish the Russian "crime of aggression", "the beginning of evil".
He also said that Ukraine, "realistically", did not expect to join NATO as long as the conflict continued to rage, while urging its Western allies to continue "as quickly as possible" deliveries of weapons.
burx/bds/fjb/roc/nzg
05/05/2023 02:05:38 - Moscow (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
