By Athena Papakosta

Moscow accuses Washington of being behind what it describes as an attack over the Kremlin with two drones aimed at killing Russian President Vladimir Putin. The National Security spokesman of the White House, John Kirby, spoke of “ridiculous” claims.

Yesterday, Thursday, Russian television broadcast footage of the country’s president having a working meeting with Russia’s Economic Development Minister Maxim Rechetnikov in the Kremlin. Earlier, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, had informed that Vladimir Putin would work normally from there.

The Russian side insists the Ukrainians aimed to neutralize the Russian president but goes a step further and accuses the United States of giving the order. “Washington should keep in mind that Russia knows that it chooses the targets and that Ukraine simply executes.”

The reaction of the United States through the National Security Representative of the White House, John Kirby, who, speaking to two American television networks, CNN and MSNBC, said that “obviously it is a ridiculous claim” and made it clear that Washington “does not encourage , nor does it help Ukraine strike outside its borders and does not support attacks on individual leaders.”

At the same time, the United States does not know what has happened and is not hiding it with its secret services still collecting evidence. However, during the 14-month war the Kremlin has repeatedly accused the West, without providing evidence, of starting the war, with Russian officials insisting it is even behind attacks inside Russian territory.

The Kremlin’s new positions came as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the International Court of Justice in The Hague to call for the establishment of a special war crimes tribunal in Ukraine. “The Russian president deserves to be sentenced for criminal acts right here, in the capital of International Law,” he pointed out.

For Ukraine anyway, the incident with the two drones within a stone’s throw of the Kremlin is a Russian “project” from start to finish with the London-based Institute of War think tank. agrees as he notes that “Russia likely staged the attack in an attempt to bring the war domestically and set the stage for a broader mobilization of Russian public opinion” in favor of the war.

However, there are those who say that Moscow has little to gain by orchestrating the episode that dispels the myth surrounding the powerful Kremlin, the “fortress” of the Russian capital.

So it remains to be seen how he will use the episode and what the Russian president will say next Tuesday, May 9, during the Soviet Union’s Victory Day celebrations over Nazi Germany.

For now air raid sirens are still sounding on Ukrainian territory as today marks one week of this deja vu of massive Russian missile and air strikes resumed as the clock ticks down to the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in its east and south country.