A drone crashed into the Kremlin's Senate Palace on Wednesday, just days before the annual Victory Parade. Photo: EPN/Newscom/Avalon < p>Russian state television did not air footage of the drone strike on the Kremlin due to subdued coverage of the attack, which prompted senior Russian officials to call for the assassination of Vladimir Zelensky.
On Wednesday night news reports prime-time programs on Channel One, Russia 1 and NTV aired brief coverage of the attack, but used archival footage of Red Square instead of one of the many CCTV footage of what appears to be a Ukrainian drone crashing into the Senate Palace in the Kremlin.
The incident, described as the first attack on a Russian residence since 1942, is a great embarrassment to the Kremlin, especially since it happened just days before the annual Victory Day parade that showcases Russia's military might.
At a morning briefing by the Institute for the Study of War, American think tank, suggested that Moscow “probably staged this attack in an attempt to get the war across to a Russian domestic audience.” However, state media coverage seems to indicate otherwise.
Komsomolskaya Pravda (KP), Russia's best-selling tabloid, covered the attack on the front page of its website but sought to downplay its impact, calling it “Ukraine's attempt to strike at the Kremlin.”
Attack on the Kremlin
In the story, the KP website published an archive photo of the Kremlin with the caption “There are no victims and material damage in the Kremlin” and none of the available videos was included.
But belatedly – nightly talk shows on the state on television, pro-Kremlin commentators called for blood.
The hawkish MP Andrei Gurulyov told Russia 1 that Ukrainian leaders “should no longer be on the face of the Earth: nothing prevents us from doing this.”
On Thursday, the press secretary of the President of Russia lashed out at against the United States for questioning Ukraine's involvement in the attack, and insisted that the United States must have incited Ukraine to do so.
“We know very well that decisions on such actions and such terrorist attacks are made in Washington, not in Kiev,” said Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Kyiv should only do what it is told.”
Russian hawks urging Putin to retaliate were still expecting a tough response from the Kremlin on Thursday.
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“Putin is hesitant to answer so as not to provoke a nuclear war,” said Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst.
But he will have to react somehow, otherwise Washington and Kiev will be even more confused in their attacks against Russia.”
Channel One preferred not to show the drone strike in its four-minute report, but broadcast the Kremlin's statement about the attack. He suggested that Kiev was “provoking an escalation” and “reaffirming its doctrine of sabotage and terrorism.”
Two other major TV channels also showed footage of the Kremlin and archival images of Putin, insisting that the work of the head of state in no way was thwarted.
None of them published comments from Russian hardliners who, among other things, called for the assassination of Zelensky.
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