Russia FM Lavrov says drone attack on Kremlin was a 'hostile act'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced on Friday that Russia will take "concrete actions" in response to the attempted drone attack on the Kremlin, which the Russian government believes was carried out by Ukraine. Lavrov called the attack a "hostile act" and claimed that it could not have been carried out without the knowledge of their "masters".

Speaking after a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation in India, Lavrov stated that Russia would not simply talk about whether the attack is a cause for war or not, but instead would take concrete actions in response.

Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday

On Wednesday, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of attempting to strike the presidential residence with two drones, both of which were shot down on Tuesday night. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other officials from the country have denied involvement in the drone attack.

When questions were asked to Lavrov, while he was in India to attend SCO meet on Friday, as to why it took the Kremlin hours to report the incident and why videos of it also surfaced later in the day, Lavrov said, Zelenskyy and his team are doing everything both in media and in their practical steps so that any self-respecting country does not want to communicate with them. 

However, the Kremlin alleged on Thursday that the US had made the decision for Ukraine to carry out the attack. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated during a press briefing that "decisions on such actions, on such terrorist attacks, are not made in Kyiv, (but) namely, in Washington. And Kyiv is already doing what it is told to do." On Thursday, the EU called on Russia not to use the alleged drone attack as a pretext to escalate its conflict with Ukraine. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whilst commenting on the attack had said that the US is still collecting facts. He also alluded that it is possible Moscow staged the attack, in an attempt to galvanise the Russian population before May 9th.