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MOSCOW — Moscow on Thursday accused the US of masterminding a drone attack on the Kremlin, a charge denied by Washington, and said Ukrainian sabotage on Russian territory had reached "unprecedented momentum".

Moscow said President Vladimir Putin was working from the Kremlin the day after the attack, which it said was a Ukrainian attempt to kill him.

"Decisions on such attacks are not made in Kyiv, but in Washington," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"Kyiv only does what it is told to do... Washington should understand clearly that we know this," he said.

Ukraine has denied responsibility, with President Volodymyr Zelensky saying "We do not attack Moscow or Putin."

The US has also denied any involvement.

"Peskov is just lying there, pure and simple," John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said on MSNBC.

Throughout its more than year-long offensive in Ukraine, Moscow has maintained that Kyiv is taking orders from the US,  accusing the West of leading a war against Russia by proxy.

Another Ukraine ally, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow "not to use this alleged attack as an excuse to continue the escalation of the war".

 The Kremlin attack came as Russia prepares to mark one of its main holidays of May 9, celebrating the Soviet victory over the Nazis, with a traditional military parade on Red Square.

It came after five days of apparent sabotage attacks, including trains derailed by explosions and massive fires in annexed Crimea.

On Thursday, Russia's southern Krasnodar and Rostov regions, both near Ukraine, reported drone strikes that caused fires.

And early Thursday evening, Russia-installed authorities in Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, said their forces had downed a drone near an airbase in the region.

The Kremlin has insisted Moscow’s May 9 parade will go ahead, despite the attacks in border regions and in the heart of Russian power, but under “strengthened” security.

Russian television on Thursday showed Putin in the Kremlin for the first time since the drone attack.

The Russian leader does not plan “any address on this topic”, said his spokesman.

Moscow did however acknowledge that the country was facing an “unprecedented” wave of sabotage.

Russia has opened a terrorism probe into the Moscow attack.

It has not released official images of the attack. Unverified social media images showed a drone hitting the Kremlin Senate building.

Peskov said “two copper sheets” on the dome of the 18th-century building had been damaged by fire.

“They have been or will be replaced, everything will be like new. There is no other damage.”

As Moscow accused the US of planning the Kremlin attack, Ukraine’s Zelensky arrived on a surprise visit to The Hague.

He visited the International Criminal Court, which in March issued an arrest warrant for Putin over the alleged illegal deportation of Ukranian children.

“We all want to see a different Vladimir here,” Zelensky said, referring to the Russian President, his namesake, who he believes “deserves to be sanctioned for his criminal actions here, in the capital of international law”.

A special tribunal should be created to hold Russia to account for its “crime of aggression”, he said.

“There should be responsibility for this crime. And this can only be enforced by the tribunal,” Zelensky told diplomats and officials at the court.

The Netherlands has pledged both financial and military support to Ukraine since Russia launched its offensive in February 2022.

Zelensky, who also met Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, said Ukraine was “realistic” that it would not be able to join NATO while still fighting Russia.

“But we want a very clear message that we will be in NATO after the war,” he said.

Putin has used Ukraine’s wish to join the alliance to justify launching his offensive.

On the day of the alleged Kremlin attack, Ukraine said Russia had shelled the southern Kherson region, one strike hitting a supermarket.

At least 23 people died, and 46 were wounded in the strikes, officials said.

 After the Kremlin accused Kyiv of attempting to kill Putin, Ukrainian authorities said they faced a new wave of strikes overnight.

The Ukrainian air force said Thursday that Russia had fired 24 attack drones overnight, 18 of which were downed. Authorities said there were no casualties.

Sergiy Popko, the head of the city of Kyiv’s military administration, said “all enemy missiles and UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were destroyed over Kyiv by air defence forces”.

Popko said it was the third day of attempted strikes on Kyiv in May.

“Our city has not experienced such intensity of strikes since the beginning of this year,” he said.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Wednesday it had shot down two drones aimed at President Vladimir Putin's Kremlin residence in what it called a Ukrainian "terrorist" assassination attempt.

Kyiv said it had "nothing to do" with the alleged attack, suggesting it was "staged" by Moscow, while the US said the report should be taken with a "shaker of salt".

Russia announced the incident after a series of major sabotage attacks in the run-up to celebrations for the nation's most important holiday on May 9, marking the Soviet victory over the Nazis.

"Today at night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles," the Kremlin said.

"Two unmanned vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin... the devices were put out of action," a Kremlin statement said.

The operation was described as "a planned terrorist act and an attempt on the life of the president of the Russian Federation".

Moscow said Putin was not hurt and there were no casualties.

"Russia reserves the right to take retaliatory measures wherever and whenever it deems necessary," the Kremlin statement continued.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin was working at his residence near Moscow on Wednesday and would still take part in a scheduled World War II Victory Day parade on Red Square next week as planned.

Kyiv denied any involvement.

"We didn't attack Putin...," said Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky, on a surprise trip to Finland. "We fight on our territory, we are defending our villages and cities."

Presidential spokesman Mikhaylo Podolyak said: "Such staged reports by Russia should be considered solely as an attempt to prepare an information background for a large-scale terrorist attack on Ukraine."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cast doubt on the veracity of the report.

“I’ve seen the reports. I cannot validate them, we simply don’t know,” Blinken said at an event in Washington.

“I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said: “We’re not going to jump to any conclusions at this particular moment.”

On Moscow’s iconic Red Square, AFP saw some people climbing external stairs onto the domed roof of a building known as the Kremlin Senate, which houses the presidential administration.

The roof appeared to be unscathed despite unverified images circulating on social media apparently showing it being struck by an explosion from a possible drone.

There were people out for a stroll in the area and no strengthened police presence.

Banners and seating have already been set up ahead of the May 9 parade.

Moscow has vowed that the parade, central to Putin’s rule, will go on as normal.

There were calls in Moscow for a tough reaction against Ukraine.

“We will demand the use of weapons capable of stopping and destroying the Kyiv terrorist regime,” said Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of the Russian Duma and Putin ally.

Sabotage attacks 

The alleged thwarted operation comes on the heels of a series of incidents, including sabotage attacks on trains, ahead of the popular WWII victory celebrations.

The last five days have seen two trains derailed by explosions, oil depot fires near and in Crimea, and power lines blown up near Saint Petersburg.

Fighting has also intensified along parts of the front line between Russian and Ukrainian troops.

In the region of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said shelling on Wednesday had killed 16 civilians, including 12 in the regional capital of the same name.

Officials in Russia also said they were dealing with a major fire at a fuel depot close to the bridge to Russian-annexed Crime.

A source in the emergency services was quoted by TASS news agency as saying that the fire had been caused by a drone.

As these apparent attacks behind Russian lines have become more frequent, a range of cities near the Ukraine border, but also some more distant, have cancelled traditional May 9 parades.

Moscow however has vowed that the central Red Square parade will go ahead as normal although extra precautions are being taken, including a ban on all unauthorised drone flights in the city.

The Kremlin news came as Ukraine prepares for a fresh offensive aimed at repelling Russian forces from the territory they currently hold in the east and south.

In possible signs that preparations are being stepped up, the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine announced a long curfew for residents and sabotage acts behind Russian lines intensified.

Kherson, retaken by Ukrainian troops in November, will be under curfew from Friday evening until Monday morning.

Regional officials said this was “for law enforcement officers to do their job”, but similar long curfews have also been used in the past to facilitate troop and arms movements.

“During these 58 hours, it is forbidden to move on the streets of the city,” the head of Kherson’s regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said on Telegram.

He advised residents to stock up on food and medicine and said people could go for short walks near their houses or visit shops as long as they carried identity documents with them at all times.

Kherson was captured by Russian troops last year in the first days of the invasion and remained under Russian occupation until November 2022.

NATO’s newest member Finland welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a surprise visit to take part in a summit with the leaders of the five Nordic nations, which have been key providers of military aid.

“I believe that this year will be decisive for us, for Europe, for Ukraine, decisive for victory,” Zelensky told reporters during a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.

Zelensky also congratulated Finland on its NATO accession, adding: “Ukraine needs the same security guarantees.

“The most powerful security guarantee for Ukraine is NATO membership,” he said.

BELGRADE — Eight students and a security guard were killed during a school shooting in Belgrade on Wednesday, officials said, with police accusing the detained 13-year-old suspect of plotting the attack for a month and making a kill list.

The incident rocked the Balkan nation, which has not seen a school shooting of this magnitude for decades and where one Cabinet minister called it the “biggest tragedy” to occur in the Serbian school system in recent history.

“Eight children and a security guard were killed, while six children and one schoolteacher were wounded,” the interior ministry said.

Belgrade police chief Veselin Milic identified the dead students as seven girls and one boy, born between 2009 and 2011.

The shooting occurred at 8:40 am (06:40 GMT) at an elementary school in Belgrade’s downtown Vracar district. Serbian elementary schools go up to eighth grade, educating children aged seven to 15.

Police moved quickly to seal off the neighbourhood as parents rushed to the scene, where students were visibly distraught as they waited outside the school.

Milan Nedeljkovic, president of the Vracar district, said the school’s security guard likely prevented more deaths by putting himself in the line of fire.

The guard “wanted to prevent the tragedy and he was the first victim”, Nedeljkovic told reporters outside the school.

“Probably the tragedy would be even bigger if the man did not stand in front of the boy who was shooting,” he added.

Authorities later identified the suspect as Kosta Kecmanovic, a 13-year-old student, saying that he was armed with two pistols, one in his backpack and one that he used.

‘Horror movie’ 

The suspect “planned the shooting for a month and made a list of kids he planned to kill”, Milic told a press conference.

“The sketch looks like something from a video game or a horror movie, which indicates that he planned in detail, by classes, whom to liquidate,” he added.

Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said the suspect’s father, who owned the alleged weapons used in the shooting spree, was also under arrest.

“The father claims that the arms were locked in a safe with a code, but apparently the kid had the code, as he managed to take the pistols and three magazines with 15 bullets each,” said Gasic.

Hours after the incident, officials said an array of resources were being deployed to assist students, families and faculty connected to the shooting.

“A team of psychologists and others... were immediately called to provide adequate support to students, employees and parents during this traumatic period,” Education Minister Branko Ruzic told media.

Ruzic went on to call the shooting the “biggest tragedy” that has occurred in the Serbian school system in recent history.

“It is unimaginable when you see those scenes, what it was like for those children who felt that fear, for the guards and teachers when they tried to protect the children,” Ruzic added.

The minister dismissed media reports that bullying was a possible motive in the shooting, saying “no conclusions” had been reached.

Serbia will observe three days of mourning, Ruzic added, while a minute of silence will be observed in schools across the country on Thursday.

‘Serious gunshot wounds’ 

The head of Belgrade’s main hospital KCS, Milika Asanin, said doctors were operating on several of the wounded.

“One male student is in a serious condition with serious gunshot wounds to the chest and neck, and the other male student was injured in his lower leg,” Asanin told Serbian news outlet RTS.

“The girl student was wounded in the stomach and both arms, and the teacher in the stomach and both hands,” he said.

Schools across Belgrade were closed following the shooting, according to state media, as shock spread through the capital.

Astrid Merlini, whose daughter was in the school during the shooting, said teachers moved quickly to hide students as the attack unfolded.

“When [my daughter] saw the security guard fall, she immediately rushed back to class. She was scared. She told her teacher — there is a shooting upstairs,” Merlini told AFP.

“The teacher immediately sheltered the children, locked them in the class.”

Gun violence in schools is extremely rare in Serbia, where purchasing a firearm requires a special permit.

Following the shooting, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell offered “deep condolences to the families and close ones of the victims”.

LONDON — Commemorative plates, towels and tea bags are vying for attention in shop windows near Buckingham Palace, ready for the first coronation of a British monarch in 70 years.

“We’ve ordered about three times more [memorabilia] than usual,” Sardor Zok, a salesman in charge of coronation merchandise at online souvenir retailer Cool Britannia, told AFP.

Zok expects demand to rise as Charles III’s crowning approaches on Saturday.

Elsewhere, the coronation has presented an obvious marketing opportunity.

The upmarket department store Fortnum & Mason, which supplies the royal family with its tea, is selling a special organic coronation Darjeeling for the coronation for £19.95 ($24.90) per 200 grammes.

“We chose Darjeeling because we understand that King Charles drinks this with a spoonful of honey,” said Ottilie Cunningham, one of the brand’s managers.

“We decided to only select organic tea gardens in Darjeeling due to His Majesty’s passion for organic agriculture.”

Ceramics company “Emma Bridgewater”, popular with royal collectors, has produced a wide variety of tableware for the occasion ranging from £12 to £28 for a mug, tea or coffee cup.

All of its pieces are hand-decorated, the manufacturer says, adding that sales have started off on a high note and are expected to be better than for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee last year.

The coronation will also see sales of some six million coins and medals minted for the event, millions of pounds worth of jewellery, flags and banners as well as 10,000 teapots, according to forecasts by consultants the Centre for Retail Research.

The cost-of-living crisis will take a back seat, with Britons and tourists expected to spend more than £245 million on souvenirs alone — and more than £1.4 billion if the wider celebrations are included, it added.

‘Fanatic’ 

“Lots of people buying souvenirs will be older people... less affected by the cost of living crisis — they own their houses, have a pension,” said CRR director Joshua Bamfield.

In the souvenir shops behind the palace, customers come in to browse an eclectic mix of royal memorabilia, looking to spend “£15 to £20”, according to store manager Ismayil Vadakkethil.

The items include protective gloves embossed with the royal coat of arms, Union Jack decorated paper towels and streamers and a “monarchy forever” T-shirt featuring the king.

“My mother is a fanatic royalist, she’s got a glass cabinet with all of these royal things,” said Australian Julie Whitehead, 63.

“So I’m going to pick up the King Charles ones for her because her cabinet is full of Queen Elizabeth ones,” she added.

But while King Charles items sell well, so do souvenirs featuring the monarch’s late mother, who remains very popular with royal souvenir hunters.

“I prefer the queen,” said Amélie Zerr, a 40-year-old French tourist, adding she was looking for a “small, kitschy souvenir” and had her heart set on a mug and a coaster.

The customers have changed in recent times, Vadakkethil has noticed.

“Recently I’ve noticed that it’s not just tourists coming in. People who work next door, in the offices, the Londoners themselves, they come into the shop,” he added.

For Britons, “it’s a big event”, and many will be experiencing a coronation for the first time, said Bamfield.

“Even in the worst dictatorships, one does not poison opponents live on phones and media,” he predicted. “It’s part of the British psyche.”

ROME — Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Thursday invited Pope Francis to visit his country, during a meeting at the Vatican, where he also asked for help to return children forcibly taken to Russia.

"I invited His Holiness to visit Ukraine in person," Shmyhal told reporters at the Foreign Press Association in Rome a few hours after the papal audience.

He said he had discussed with the 86-year-old Pope the peace plan proposed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to end the war sparked by Russia's invasion last year.

This included "discussing in a little more detail the different steps the Vatican could take" to help Kyiv achieve its goals, the prime minister said, speaking through an Italian translator.

"For example, I asked for the participation, the assistance from the Vatican, from His Holiness, for the return to Ukraine of children, some of whom were orphaned, who were taken away by force, mainly to Russia."

More than 16,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia since the February 2022 invasion, according to Kyiv, with many allegedly placed in institutions and foster homes.

Russia denies the allegations, saying instead it has saved Ukrainian children from the horrors of the war.

In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague announced an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war crime accusation of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.

Shmyhal also met two of the Pope's top officials at the Vatican, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin and the de facto foreign minister, Paul Gallagher.

"During the cordial discussions, which took place in the Secretariat of State, various matters connected to the war in Ukraine were highlighted, with particular attention to the humanitarian aspects and efforts to restore peace," a Vatican statement said.

"In the same context, several issues regarding the life and activity of the Church in the country were raised."

Francis has repeatedly called for peace in Ukraine, although the Vatican's attempts to mediate in the conflict have yet to yield any results.

The Ukrainian government said that during his visit Shmyhal gave the Pope a ceramic rooster that has become a symbol of the Ukrainian resistance during the war, and a photography book of atrocities allegedly committed by Russia in various Ukrainian cities, including Bucha.

Shmyhal was in Rome for a conference on Wednesday on how Italian businesses could help with the reconstruction of Ukraine, when he also met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.

TAIPEI/ SAN ANTONIO — Taiwan's military will practise intercepting warships and combating a Chinese blockade of the island during annual war game simulations in July, the defence ministry said Wednesday.

Democratic Taiwan lives under constant threat of an attack by Beijing, which views the island as part of its territory that must be reunified.

The annual "Han Kuang" (Han Glory) drills will be divided into computer war games in May tackling "various possible actions of the enemy's invasion of Taiwan" and partial live-fire exercises in July, the ministry said.

"Our scenarios are based on the enemy's current threats to invade Taiwan and its recent military exercises harassing Taiwan," Major General Lin Wen-huang told reporters when asked whether China's Shandong aircraft carrier would factor into this year's scenarios.

The Shandong was used by Beijing during military exercises this month simulating targeted strikes and a blockade of Taiwan. 

The five-day exercises in July will help bolster Taiwan's ability to intercept China's naval and amphibious fleets, Lin said.

The military will also practise “joint anti-blockade on the main external waterways to maintain the safety of marine transportation routes and counter the enemy’s blockade”, he said.

Taiwan also incorporated lessons from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine into last year’s Han Kuang drills and planned to do so again, the ministry said. 

Beijing’s sabre-rattling has intensified in recent years.

Its most recent war games were a response to a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

On the last day of the drills, Beijing sent 54 aircraft into the island’s south-western and southeastern air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the highest number recorded in a single day since October 2021.

Beijing launched its largest-ever military exercises around the island last August, following a visit to Taiwan by McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi. 

The presence of Chinese warships and ADIZ incursions by jets has become a routine occurrence in recent years.

US and Philippine troops fired a salvo of rockets at a warship representing an enemy vessel in the disputed South China Sea on Wednesday, in the final exercise of the allies’ largest-ever military drills.

It was the first time the countries had conducted a joint live-fire exercise in the hotly contested waters, which China claims almost entirely.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has sought stronger defence ties with the United States, sat in an observation tower with US and Philippine officials watching the event north of Manila.

“No Hollywood effects this morning, this is old-fashioned training,” said Lt. Col. Nick Mannweiler, a US Marine Corps public affairs officer.

The live-fire drill kicked off with the US HIMARS precision rocket system launching a series of rounds at a decommissioned Philippine Navy corvette anchored about 22 kilometres off the coast.

The objective was to sink the decades-old ship, which represented an enemy vessel approaching the Philippine shore.

That was followed by artillery units lined up along a grassy field firing rockets at floating drums 10 kilometres offshore. 

F-16 Fighting Falcons, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and Philippine Air Force FA-50 fighter jets were also to take part in the event.

The drill was briefly interrupted when a small private aircraft entered the exercise area, Mannweiler told AFP.

‘Ironclad alliance’ 

The drills aim to boost Manila’s military capability while serving as a US show of support for its Asian ally as China’s assertiveness in the region grows stronger.

Nearly 18,000 troops have taken part in the annual exercises dubbed Balikatan, or “shoulder to shoulder”, in Tagalog.

Wednesday’s event “demonstrated new potential and revitalised the strength of our militaries while we continuously forge an ironclad alliance”, the Balikatan director for the Philippine military, Maj. Gen. Marvin Licudine, said in a statement.

The drills, which began on April 11, have involved helicopters landing on a Philippine island off the northern tip of the main island of Luzon, nearly 300 kilometres from Taiwan.

The US military also showed off its Patriot missiles, considered one of the best air defence systems in the world.

This year’s Balikatan follows a deal announced earlier this month for US forces to use an increased number of bases in the Philippines, including one near Taiwan.

The exercises and growing US access to Philippine bases have angered China, which has accused the United States of endangering regional peace and trying to drive a wedge between Manila and Beijing.

Philippine drills spokesman Col. Michael Logico said it was the Southeast Asian country’s “inviolable right to exercise within our territory”. 

Beijing claims sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, including the Spratly Islands, ignoring an international ruling that the assertion has no legal basis.

China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wednesday that “defence and security cooperation between countries... should not escalate tensions... and should not target any third party”.

It is the first Balikatan to be held under Marcos, who has gravitated towards the United States since taking office last June.

Relations had weakened under his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte, who had favoured China over his country’s former colonial master.

Marcos is scheduled to meet with US President Joe Biden at the White House next week to discuss among other things the growing tension over the South China Sea and Taiwan.