Latest in Ukraine: Russia Claims Ukraine Launched Drone Targeting Putin at Kremlin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes surprise trip to Finland Russian fuel depot in Ukraine catches fire U.S. expected to announce new military aid package to Ukraine The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine launched two drones at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence overnight but that security services disabled them, and the Russian leader was not injured. The Russian claim could not be immediately verified, and a Ukrainian official said the Kyiv government had nothing to do with any alleged drone attack on the Kremlin. Moscow, in a statement, said some debris from the downing of the drones was scattered on the grounds of the Kremlin but there were no casualties. The Kremlin said it “regards these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an attempt on the president,” and it reserved the right to retaliate. It said that “timely actions taken by the military and special services” had disabled the drones. Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time of the incident, according to his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. U.S Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he could not verify the Kremlin reports. “I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt,” he said. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in comments sent to the Reuters news agency that the allegation that Kyiv was behind the attack, and Russia's arrest of alleged Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea, could signal that Moscow was planning a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in the coming days. "Of course, Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks on the Kremlin. We do not attack the Kremlin because, first of all, it does not resolve any military tasks," Podolyak said. "In my opinion, it is absolutely obvious that both 'reports about an attack on the Kremlin' and simultaneously the supposed detention of Ukrainian saboteurs in Crimea … clearly indicates the preparation of a large-scale terrorist provocation by Russia in the coming days,” Podolyak said. Russian authorities have reported a string of drone strikes in recent months, mostly in Russian territory near the Ukraine border, though at least one of them was south of Moscow. The Russian capital is 450 kilometers northeast of the Ukraine border at its closet point. Ukraine has not claimed direct responsibility for the attacks but often claims it was returning missiles and drones launched into Ukraine. Zelenskyy in Finland The Ukrainian leader arrived Wednesday in Finland to participate in a summit with the leaders of five Nordic nations. Zelenskyy is meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, Norway’s Jonas Gahr Støre, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Iceland’s Katrín Jakobsdóttir at the official residence of Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. Zelenskyy’s trip to Finland comes just weeks after the Nordic nation was admitted as the 31st member nation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – NATO. Helsinki sought membership in the Western-based military alliance in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last February. Meanwhile, a fuel depot in southern Russia caught fire early Wednesday morning. Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southwestern Krasnodar region, said on the messaging app Telegram the depot was located in the village of Volna. He said there were no reports of casualties from the fire. Volna is near the bridge spanning the Kerch Strait that separates mainland Russia from the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia forcibly annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The bridge, which is a vital link for Russia’s military to transport supplies to its soldiers in Ukraine, was partially destroyed by a truck bomb last October that Moscow blamed on Kyiv. The U.S.-based cable news network CNN is reporting that Russia’s state-owned TASS news agency said the blaze at the fuel depot was caused by a drone strike. Wednesday’s fuel depot fire comes after a suspected drone attack last Saturday on an oil depot in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. Two Russian freight trains were derailed by explosive devices Monday and Tuesday near the border with Belarus and Ukraine. The incidents could be part of a series of attacks carried out by Ukrainian forces ahead of an expected counteroffensive, although Kyiv has not taken responsibility for them. Russia’s Federal Security Service said Wednesday it has arrested seven people connected to a Ukrainian military intelligence unit. The FSB said in a statement the group was planning to carry out major “sabotage and terrorist attacks in Crimea” and was responsible for an attack on a railway in February. The agency also said the group was planning attacks on Crimean political leaders, including Russian-installed Governor Sergei Aksyonov. Meanwhile, Russian forces have carried out another wave of drone strikes across Ukraine. Officials in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, said their air defense systems successfully shot down the drones, but Agence France-Presse is reporting that four people were killed and seven injured in drone strikes in the southern region of Kherson, quoting regional administration officials. After a lull of nearly two months, Russia fired a wave of missiles before dawn last Friday, including one that killed 23 civilians while they slept in an apartment building in the city of Uman hundreds of kilometers from the front. US military aid The United States is sending Ukraine about $300 million in military aid, with the official announcement expected as early as Wednesday, U.S. officials said, as Ukraine gears up for a spring counteroffensive. The package will include rounds for artillery, howitzers, along with rockets for HIMARS, mortars, missiles and anti-tank rifles. For the first time, the United States is sending Hydra-70 rockets, which are launched from aircraft and could be used in air support for advancing Ukraine ground forces. The weapons will come from Pentagon stocks and resemble earlier deliveries. The 37th shipment of arms to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 comes as Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Ukraine is in the "home stretch, when we can say: 'Yes everything is ready.'" Some material in this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

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