Ukraine war live updates: Suspicions mount over Russia’s Kremlin ‘attack’ claim; Ukraine hit by more drone attacks overnight

Ukraine war live updates: Suspicions mount over Russia's Kremlin 'attack' claim; Ukraine hit by more drone attacks overnight

Kyiv and Odesa targeted with further drone attacks overnight

Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the port city of Odesa were targeted in further attempted drone strikes overnight, Ukrainian officials said.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram that the capital had been targeted again with drones and missiles, marking the “third attack on the capital over four days of May.”

“Our city has not suffered such a dense intensity of strikes since the beginning of this year,” Popko said. The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted over three hours last night. Popko said the drones and missiles were destroyed, although the debris from destroyed drones damaged some buildings and parked cars. No casualties were reported, he said.

A member of the mobile air defense group, called “drone hunters,” checks a machine gun placed on top of a pickup truck at the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 1, 2023.

Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images

Separately, Ukraine’s southern command grouping said 12 out of 15 drones used to attack Odesa overnight were destroyed.

Ukraine’s air force said it destroyed 18 out of 24 Iranian-made “Shahed-136/131 combat drones” that were launched overnight by Russia from its Western Bryansk region, and from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. The drones were shot down in the northern, central, and southern regions of Ukraine, it said. 

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the details within the reports.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia ‘likely staged’ drone attack on Kremlin, analysts say

Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin Wednesday, saying the government in Kyiv tried to strike the presidential residence in Moscow using two unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

Ukraine denied any involvement in the incident, saying it more likely signaled that Russia was planning a large-scale terrorist attack against Ukraine in the coming days. Russia has often been accused of plotting “false flag” attacks that it can blame on Ukraine and use to justify or escalate its own military aggression against the country.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said Wednesday evening that “Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization.”

Russian Police officers guard the Red Square in front of the Kremlin on May 3, 2023, in Moscow, Russia.

Contributor | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Several indicators suggest that the strike was internally conducted and purposefully staged, the ISW noted, not least of all because Russia has recently taken steps to increase its domestic air defense capabilities and it was extremely unlikely “that two drones could have penetrated multiple layers of air defense and detonated or been shot down just over the heart of the Kremlin in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera.”

In addition, the ISW said it believes that the Kremlin’s “immediate, coherent, and coordinated response” to the incident suggests that the attack “was internally prepared in such a way that its intended political effects outweigh its embarrassment.”

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in what it characterized as “a planned terrorist attack” and assassination attempt (Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged incident). It did not provide any evidence that Ukraine had carried out the attack.

— Holly Ellyatt

Biden issues statement in support of detained journalists on World Press Freedom Day

US journalist Evan Gershkovich, arrested on espionage charges, stands inside a defendants’ cage before a hearing to consider an appeal on his arrest at the Moscow City Court in Moscow on April 18, 2023. 

Natalia Kolesnikova | Afp | Getty Images

President Joe Biden said his administration would continue to support newsrooms and journalists around the world in a statement on World Press Freedom Day.

“No journalist – American or not – should have to risk their lives and livelihoods in pursuit of that truth. Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice weigh heavy on my mind today,” Biden said.

“A free press is a pillar of democracy. It allows our government and our society to be self-critical and self-correcting. It educates, illuminates, exposes, and uncovers. It serves as a guardian of truth,” he added.

Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Moscow, was arrested more than a month ago by Russian authorities on espionage charges.

Tice, a freelance journalist and former U.S. Marine, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and ahs been held captive since.

— Amanda Macias

Blinken says U.S. cannot validate accusation that Ukraine attempted to kill Putin

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies at a Senate Appropriations State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Subcommittee hearing on President Biden’s proposed budget request for the Department of State for fiscal year 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 22, 2023. 

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the U.S. cannot validate Russia’s accusation that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters.

Blinken said he would take anything coming from the Kremlin with a “very large shaker of salt,” according to the report.

He also reiterated the United States’ support for Ukraine and said he feels confident that the country will be successful in its effort to retake more of its territory.

— Michele Luhn

Ukraine denies any involvement in alleged Kremlin drone attack

A sign prohibiting unmanned aerial vehicles flying over the area is on display near the State Historical Museum and the Kremlin wall in central Moscow, Russia, May 3, 2023. 

Evgenia Novozhenina | Reuters

Ukraine denied any involvement in an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine had nothing to do with the drone strike, stating on Twitter that “Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

Rather, he said the allegations suggest Russia was planning a large-scale “terrorist” attack against Ukraine in the coming days.

Serhii Nikiforov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s spokesman, also told the Ukrainian Pravda news outlet that Kyiv was not involved in the incident.

“We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin, but as President Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, not to attack foreign ones,” he told the news outlet in comments translated by NBC News.

Nikiforov said Russia’s description of the incident as a “terrorist” attack was interesting given Russia’s repeated attacks against Ukrainian territory over the course of the war.

“A terrorist attack is the destroyed houses in Dnipro and Uman, or a rocket fired at the train station in Kramatorsk and many other tragedies. And what happened in Moscow was obviously an escalation of the situation in light of May 9,” alluding to Russia’s upcoming Victory Day parade commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The comments come after the Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight, but said the purported attack on the heart of the Russian government was “successfully repulsed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the incident, the Kremlin said. It provided no evidence to back up the claim of an attempted attack.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia claims Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones

A still image taken from video shows a flying object exploding in an intense burst of light near the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, in this image taken from video obtained by Reuters May 3, 2023. 

Ostorozhno Novosti | Reuters

The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight but said the attack on the heart of the Russian government was “successfully repulsed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the purported attack, which was reported by the Kremlin, which provided no evidence to back up the claim of an attempted attack, however.

“Last night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles,” the Kremlin stated, with the claim detailing that “two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin.”

“As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled,” the Kremlin said.

“As a result of their fall and the scattering of fragments on the territory of the Kremlin, there are no casualties and material damage.”

People gather on the dome of the Kremlin Senate building in central Moscow, Russia, May 3, 2023. 

Evgenia Novozhenina | Reuters

Putin was not injured and continues to work as usual after the Kyiv attack, it said.

The Kremlin’s statement suggested that it viewed the attempted attack as a “planned terrorist action” and an attempt on the life of the president ahead of Victory Day on May 9.

Russia was already believed to be slimming down its Victory Day parade, which commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WW2, amid fears of Ukrainian strikes.

Russia reserves the right to respond to an attempt to strike at the Kremlin where and when it sees fit, the Kremlin added, without giving details on how it planned to respond.

A still image taken from video shows a flying object approaching the dome of the Kremlin Senate building during the alleged Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow, Russia, in this image taken from video obtained by Reuters May 3, 2023.

Ostorozhno Novosti | Reuters

Footage began circulating on social media channels purportedly showing what could be an unmanned aerial vehicle appearing to explode above a domed roof of one of the Kremlin’s buildings. CNBC wasn’t able to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, however.

Ukraine has not publicly commented on the claims. NBC News has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment but hasn’t yet received a response.

— Holly Ellyatt

Read CNBC’s previous live coverage here:

admin