Kremlin claims Ukraine’s alleged drone attack on Moscow ‘retaliation’ for Russian strike

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – The Kremlin on Tuesday claimed that the drone attack on Moscow was a “retaliation” by Kyiv against a Russian strike on a Ukrainian decision-making center on Sunday.

"It is clear that we are talking about the Kyiv regime's response to our very effective strike on one of the decision-making centers. This strike took place on Sunday," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during a press briefing.

Peskov claimed that the attack was “obviously” conducted by Ukraine, but refrained from details concerning where the drone attack was launched from, saying: “This information is for specialists, for the military, for special services.”

He further said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was informed about the attack by the Defense Ministry, as well as the mayor and governor of Moscow.

Peskov said all relevant Russian departments reacted effectively to the drone attack, adding: “The air defense system also worked well.”

Russian authorities said early Tuesday that a drone attack damaged several buildings in Moscow, with Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin declaring that two people sought medical attention but were not hospitalized.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that Ukraine was behind the drone attack, claiming that eight aircraft-type drones were employed in the attack, all of which were shot down.

Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, Ukraine's presidential adviser, commented on the incident during the live broadcast of a local breakfast show, claiming that the drones "wanted to return to their creators."

- BRICS summit

Peskov also commented on questions concerning the BRICS summit in August, saying that Russia will participate in the summit “at the proper level.”

BRICS is a bloc of emerging economies that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

He said the inclusion of other countries into the format is a topic of discussion at the next summit, adding that over the past year, more and more countries have shown a keen interest in joining this format.

He added that the Kremlin expects other BRICS countries not to be guided by decisions of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"Of course, we expect that at least the partner countries in such an important format will not be guided by such illegal decisions," he said.

On March 17, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "illegal deportation" of Ukrainian children.