A “severe and inevitable punishment” is coming to Ukraine for a blast at the Kremlin overnight into Wednesday, top allies of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin have said, with one promising a physical elimination of Ukrainian President Zelensky.
A chorus of Kremlin figures have spoken out against what the Russian state claims was a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin, with dark vows of revenge peppered among the comments. Putin ally Dmitry Medvedev compared Zelensky to Adolf Hitler and said he and his “clique” would have to be eliminated.
The exact circumstances of Wednesday morning’s blast at the Kremlin remain unknown: Russia claims it was an attempted assassination against Putin by a pair of Ukrainian drones, while Ukraine denies all responsibility and suggests it may have been the work of an indigenous Russian anti-government resistance. Like so many things in the Ukraine war, the truth is nigh-on impossible to know and relies on the official communications of two nations trying to win a war at all costs.
Speculation since Russia alleged the attack — without supporting evidence presented, it must be said — that it could have been a low-effort false-flag operation by Russia, or a remarkable bid by Ukraine to show up Russia by making a mockery of their air defences, continues in the public sphere. But one thing is now clear, that Russia absolutely is using the blast at the Kremlin as a pretext for an assassination against Zelensky.
Delivering his assessment, top Putin ally, former Russian President, and now national security council leader Dmitry Medvedev said: “After today’s terrorist attack, there are no options left other than the physical elimination of Zelensky and his clique”. Drawing a comparison to Russia’s crushing of Nazi Germany in 1945 — a common allusion in Russia which justifies its war in Ukraine to its own people as a crusade against fascism — and said if Germany didn’t need Hitler to surrender to Russia then, Ukraine won’t need Zelensky to surrender now.
While Medvedev’s remarks may seem lurid, aggressive, or just plain over the top, this is in no way unusual for the Russian politician who has spent much of the past year threatening to nuke anyone who speaks out or takes action against their occupation of Ukraine.
Other responses from within the Kremlin, while worded less colourfully, constitute no lesser threats. The Russian foreign ministry, for instance, insisted there was “no doubt” Ukraine was behind the “criminal” drone strike and that “all those responsible for the strikes on the Kremlin will be found, they will face severe and inevitable punishment.”
Russia’s ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov also said punishment would be “hard and inevitable”, calling the blast “insolent and presumptious”. Saying it was “deceitful” to claim Russia might have been the author of a false-flag operation against itself, Antonov repeated the Kremlin line — as did others — that Russia reserved the right to take its revenge as and when it pleased.
He said: “We will answer when we consider it necessary. We will answer in accordance with the assessments of the threat that Kiev posed to the leadership of our country… Definitely, we will take this circumstance into account while working out our strategy to implement the goals and objectives of the special military operation.”
Ukraine, for their party, deny involvement. One Kyiv spokesman said it was possible the attack was actually the work of Russian anti-government partisans, remarking that drones are easy to buy. They said: “The emergence of unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles at energy facilities or on Kremlin’s territory can only indicate the guerrilla activities of local resistance forces. As you know, drones can be bought at any military store.
“The loss of power control over the country by Putin’s clan is obvious. But on the other hand, Russia has repeatedly talked about its total control over the air. In a word, something is happening in [The Russian Federation], but definitely without Ukraine’s drones over the Kremlin”.