JAKARTA - Russia accuses the United States of being behind a drone strike in the Kremlin, which aims to kill President Vladimir Putin, prompting Moscow troops to fire more drones into Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without providing evidence, said Ukraine had acted on US orders regarding the alleged drone strike on the Kremlin's stronghold.
"Efforts to deny this (attack on the Kremlin), both in Kyiv and in Washington, are certainly very ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, were made not in Kyiv but in Washington", Peskov told reporters.
Peskov said urgent investigations were underway and any responses would be carefully considered and balanced.
Separately, the Russian Foreign Ministry said the alleged drone strike "should not be left unanswered", suggesting Kyiv had no desire to end the 15-month-old war on the negotiating table.
Separately, White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Peskov "only lied" and said the United States did not push or allow Ukraine to attack beyond its borders. He added that it remains unclear what happened in the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Kyiv also denied involvement in the incident, which followed a series of explosions over the past week targeting freight trains and oil depots in western Russia and Russia-controlled Crimea. Moscow also blamed Ukraine for the attack.
Russia is increasingly accusing the United States of being a direct participant in the war, intending to cause "strategic defeat" in Moscow.
Washington denies it, saying it armed Kyiv to defend itself and retake illegally retrieved land by Moscow.
On the other hand, Russia fired two dozen war drones into Ukraine, hitting Kyiv for the third time in four days, including attacking university campuses in the Black Sea city of Odesa, ahead of a massive retaliatory attack by Ukraine to retake occupied land.
There were no reports of casualties. Meanwhile, the Kyiv City Government said Russia may have fired ballistic missiles and drones, but all of them have been shot down.
"Russia attacked Kyiv using Shahed ammunition and missiles that roamed, possibly ballistics," he said.
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In total, air defenses shot down 18 of the 24 "kamikaze" drones in an attack before dawn, officials said. Of the 15 drones fired at Odesa, 12 fell but three hit the university campus, the southern military command said.
The shooting in the Donetsk area damaged the power plant owned by power company DTEK Energo, but no casualties were reported, said DTEK and the Ministry of Energy.
The death toll from Russia's shooting of Kherson and its surroundings in southern Ukraine on Wednesday rose to 23, the governor of the Oleksandr Prokudin area said. Meanwhile Russia denies targeting civilians in Ukraine.
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