White House rejects Russia claim US was behind reported drone attack

The White House early Thursday rejected an accusation from Russia that the U.S. was behind a reported drone strike on the Kremlin earlier this week that the Kremlin claimed was meant to kill President Vladimir Putin.

“I can assure you the United States has had no role in it whatsoever,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on CNN. “We neither encouraged nor do we enable Ukraine to strike outside Ukraine’s borders.”

Russia initially claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had launched what it called a terrorist attack at the Kremlin, which serves as the center of the government as well as Putin’s residence, when a drone reportedly exploded at the building. Ukraine has also denied involvement.

On Thursday, Moscow laid out its latest accusation of U.S. involvement without citing evidence.

“Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday, according to Reuters. “We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington.”

Unverified videos shared online showed the aftermath of what Moscow said was the attack at the Kremlin. 

Kirby said on CNN that Biden administration officials are not sure who was behind the reported attack but are working to gather more information.

“We honestly just don’t know what happened here,” Kirby said.

The Kremlin accusation of the attack comes as Russia has increased attacks in Ukraine, including missile strikes that have killed scores in the country. Late last week, a barrage of missiles left 25 dead across cities in Ukraine, including 23 civilians — four of them children — in the central city of Uman, officials said.

“In just the last 48 hours or so, Mr. Putin has continued to rain down on Ukraine, cruise missiles and drones and conducting other kinds of airstrikes and, and just yesterday killed 23 innocent civilians in a residential complex that they hit likely intentionally,” Kirby said early Thursday.