2023 Kremlin drone explosion

On 3 May Moscow's mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced a no drone zone over the city.[8]

Putin's ally Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia's State Duma, called the alleged drone attack a "terrorist attack" on Russia and compared the Ukrainian government to terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, saying that "The Nazi Kyiv regime must be recognised as a terrorist organisation."[9] Volodin demanded the use of "weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime".[10] Putin's loyalist and Duma deputy Mikhail Sheremet called for a retaliatory strike against Ukrainian President Zelensky.[9]

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner military group, cautioned against the use of nuclear weapons, saying that "We look like clowns threatening to use nuclear weapons in response to a child's drone."[11]

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed that the United States was behind an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin aiming to kill Putin, saying that "We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington."[12] Leading Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov compared the incident to the September 11 attacks.[13]

Dmitry Medvedev, the head of Russia's Security Council, threatened that "After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left aside the physical elimination of Zelensky and his cabal."[14] State Duma member Andrey Gurulyov said that "We should officially declare that all of the leadership of this terrorist nation is subject to being physically eliminated."[13]

Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak expressed concern that the Kremlin will use the incident as a pretext to justify even more attacks on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure facilities in the coming days.[15] On 3 May 2023, Russian strikes on Ukraine's Kherson Oblast killed 21 people.[16]

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated at a global press conference, "I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt." US officials were skeptical that any drone sent to Ukraine could have been used in the attack, as it would have to travel a long distance to reach Moscow.[17] White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the US was "not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its border."[15]

Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, said, "It certainly wasn't an attempt to assassinate Putin, because he doesn't sleep in the roof and he probably never sleeps in the Kremlin." James Nixey, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Chatham House think-tank, said "the two most likely possibilities are a 'warning shot across the bows' by Kyiv or a false flag operation by Moscow designed to justify more intense attacks in Ukraine or more conscription."[15]