On Thursday, Russia accused the United States of orchestrating a drone attack on Moscow’s Kremlin citadel with the intention of assassinating President Vladimir Putin. The day before, the Kremlin administration had blamed Ukraine for what it called a terrorist attack, but then shifted the focus onto the US without providing any evidence. The White House was quick to deny the charge.

Video footage of the incident showed two flying objects approaching the Senate Palace inside the Kremlin walls, with one exploding and emitting a bright flash. Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time, and security analysts have dismissed the idea that the incident was a serious assassination attempt. Nevertheless, Russia has said that it reserves the right to retaliate, with hardliners such as former President Dmitry Medvedev suggesting that it should “physically eliminate” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The accusations made by the Kremlin are part of a broader pattern of hostility between Russia and the US. Russia has increasingly claimed that the US is a direct participant in the war in Ukraine, intent on inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Moscow. In contrast, the US denies this and says that it is arming Ukraine to defend itself and retake territory that Moscow has seized illegally in over 14 months of war.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the United States was “undoubtedly” behind the attack, and that Washington often selects both the targets for Ukraine to attack and the means to attack them. He also said that decisions about such actions and terrorist attacks were made in Washington, not Kyiv. However, the White House national security spokesman John Kirby has called these claims false and denied that Washington encourages or enables Ukraine to strike outside its borders.