US spy agencies found signs Ukraine may have carried out the Kremlin drone attack: NYT
- US spy agencies found signs Ukraine may have carried out the Kremlin drone attack earlier this month.
- US officials told The New York Times the attack was likely completed by special military units.
US spy agencies have found signs that Ukraine was behind the stunning drone attack over the Kremlin in Moscow earlier this month, according to The New York Times, but didn't find conclusive evidence of their involvement.
US officials anonymously told the Times that the drone attack — which intelligence officials and groups previously suggested was "likely" a Russian false-flag operation — was possibly completed by one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units.
They also acknowledged to the Times that their level of confidence that Kyiv's government authorized the attack is "low" mainly due to an inability to identify which specific officials or units were involved. It's unclear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who strongly denied involvement in the incident, was even informed.
This goes against what multiple analysts, including the Institute for the Study of War, have said about the drone attack. Earlier this month, the ISW said the attack was "likely staged" by Russia "in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization."
"Several indicators suggest that the strike was internally conducted and purposefully staged," ISW said, pointing towards recent increases in Russian domestic air defenses that would make it "extremely unlikely" for two drones to penetrate into Moscow.
The attack was also "caught nicely on camera," ISW added, pointing towards a staged attack to bolster the Kremlin's narrative of the war.
Senior military officials told the Times the drones carried small, limited explosive payloads, which suggest they were sent to the Kremlin more for shock value than actual damage.