The White House on Thursday denied any involvement in the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin after Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Washington of masterminding the operation with Ukraine.
“We have nothing to do with this,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told MSNBC. “Pure and simple, Peskov is lying,” he added.
Russia says Ukraine carried out a “terrorist attack” early Tuesday morning with two drones, aimed at killing President Vladimir Putin. Kyiv denies the accusation. Peskov, Putin’s press secretary, has already said that “decisions about these kinds of attacks are not made in Kiev, but in Washington”. “Kyiv only do what they ask,” he added.
The Kremlin incident follows other recent explosions and derailments in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory.
John Kirby reiterated to MSNBC that Washington does not support or condone attacks by Ukraine outside its borders. “Both publicly and privately, we are making it clear to Ukrainians that we do not encourage or allow them to attack outside of Ukraine.”he said.
Later asked by CNN if Washington considered Putin a legitimate military target, Kirby assured: “We do not support attacks on leaders.”
The United States led an alliance of Western nations to arm the Ukrainian military, constantly supplying it with more advanced weaponry and defense systems at the request of President Volodymir Zelensky.
On Wednesday, the White House announced a new $273 million military aid package, including large amounts of ammunition, bringing total US security assistance to Ukraine to $32 billion.
According to the White House, the new package will help address Ukraine’s requests ahead of a counteroffensive that has been months in the making. Zelensky now has “about 98% of everything his forces say they need to conduct offensive operations in the spring, weeks and months ahead”Kirby told CNN.
Source: DN
