Russia On 3 May, Moscow's mayor
Sergey Sobyanin announced a
no drone zone over the city.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's
State Duma and ally of Putin, called the alleged drone attack a "terrorist attack" on Russia and compared the Ukrainian government to terrorist organizations such as
al-Qaeda and the
Islamic State, saying that "The Nazi
Kyiv regime must be recognised as a terrorist organisation." Volodin demanded the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime". Loyalist and Duma deputy
Mikhail Sheremet called for a retaliatory strike against Ukrainian President Zelensky. Kremlin spokesman
Dmitry Peskov claimed that the United States was behind an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin aiming to kill Putin, saying that "We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington." Leading Kremlin propagandist
Vladimir Solovyov compared the incident to the
September 11 attacks. Former president and the current head of Russia's
Security Council,
Dmitry Medvedev, threatened that "After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal." State Duma member
Andrey Gurulyov said that "We should officially declare that all of the leadership of this terrorist nation is subject to being physically eliminated."
Russian dissidents Former Russian politician
Ilya Ponomarev claimed in a CNN interview that prior to the attack he had spoken with Russian resistance "anti-fascists" who carried it out. According to Ponomarev, the group originally planned the attack to occur on
Victory Day, but in April there were discussions where he advised that the attack instead occur prior to the festivities, due the danger to parade crowds, and that because to the sacredness of the day, it might achieve the opposite result due to a
rally 'round the flag effect . On his account, the goal of the 3 May drone attack was to force cancellation of the parade so that Russians would understand that the war was lost.
Ukraine Ukrainian presidential adviser
Mykhailo Podolyak commented that
Kyiv had nothing to do with the alleged attack on the Kremlin, that such actions achieved nothing for Kyiv on the battlefield, and would only provoke Russia to take more radical action. Podolyak said that the allegations that Kyiv was behind the incident, and Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs in
Crimea, could indicate that Moscow was preparing for a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in the coming days. Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky, while on a visit to Finland stated that, "We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities." On 3 May 2023, Russian strikes on Ukraine's
Kherson Oblast killed 21 people.
Other countries U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated at a global press conference, "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with
a very large shaker of salt." US officials were skeptical that any drone sent to Ukraine could have been used in the attack, as it would have to travel a long distance to reach Moscow. White House press secretary
Karine Jean-Pierre said the US was "not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border." ==See also==