Early on Wednesday, Russian authorities reported the takedown of two unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones, directly over the Kremlin. The Russian government immediately accused Ukraine of trying to kill Vladimir Putin and released a video it says corroborates the story. Ukrainian officials quickly and adamantly denied the charge and warned that Russia might want to use this false story as a pretext for some dramatic attack inside Ukraine.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky later denied any involvement, and on Thursday the Kremlin attempted to shift the narrative by blaming ... the US.
Moscow's mayor, meanwhile, responded by announcing a ban on unauthorized drone flights over the city. (Unidentified drones flying over Moscow’s city center were OK before Wednesday???) If the drone attack was real, it’s an extraordinary admission of security vulnerability for Moscow, whether it came from inside Ukrainian territory 350 miles away or from a Ukrainian or Ukrainian-sympathetic group somewhere inside Russia.
And it’s not as though Putin needs an excuse to order deadly new attacks on Ukraine. One thing is clear: Russia is increasingly on edge as Ukraine prepares to launch a widely expected counteroffensive.