Moscow says US behind Kremlin drone attack, Russian forces target Kyiv

Russia said on Thursday that the United States was behind what it says was a drone attack on the Kremlin that aimed to kill President Vladimir Putin, while Moscow’s forces fired more combat drones at Ukrainian cities including the capital Kyiv.
 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in The Hague after visiting the International Court of Justice (ICC), said that Putin must be brought to justice over the war and said Kyiv would work to create a new tribunal for this purpose.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without providing evidence, said Ukraine had acted on US orders with the alleged drone attack on the Kremlin citadel in the early hours of Wednesday.
 

White House national security spokesman John Kirby said Peskov was “just lying” and said the United States neither encouraged nor enabled Ukraine to strike outside its borders. He added it was still unclear what had happened at the Kremlin.

Kyiv has also denied involvement in the incident, which followed a string of blasts over the past week targeting freight trains and oil depots in western Russia and Russian-controlled Crimea. Moscow has blamed Ukraine for those attacks too.

“Attempts to disown this (attack on the Kremlin), both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington,” Peskov told reporters.
 

Peskov said an urgent investigation was under way and that any response would be carefully considered and balanced. Separately, Russia’s foreign ministry said the alleged drone attack “must not go unanswered" and that it showed Kyiv had no desire to end the war.

EU pledges $551 mn to bolster ammo output in Europe

The European Union is setting aside €500 million ($551 million) to boost manufacturing of artillery shells, missiles and gunpowder in an effort to speed up production of ammunition for Ukraine and galvanise the bloc’s defence industry.

Among a raft of measures, the European Commission proposed the funds to co-finance projects alongside EU governments. It offered around half of the funding for firm to ramp up output capacity or refit old stocks of ammunition. Bloomberg

US announces $300-million new military aid

The United States on Wednesday announced a new $300 -million military aid package for Ukraine that features a slew of ammunition ahead of a planned offensive against invading Russian forces. The package “includes additional ammunition for US-provided HIMARS (rocket launchers), additional howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds, and anti-armour capabilities that Ukraine is using to push back against Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression,” the Defense Department said. agencies