2023-05-04 06:51:00
Former Russian lawmaker claims partisan group behind Kremlin drone attack
A former Russian lawmaker with ties to militant groups in Russia says the recent drone attack on the Kremlin is the work of what he calls Russian partisans, not the Ukrainian military.
In an exclusive interview, Ilya Ponomarev told CNN’s Matthew Chance that “it’s one of the Russian partisan groups,” adding that “I can’t say more as they still haven’t publicly claimed responsibility.”
Ponomarev, who now lives in exile in Ukraine and Poland, was the only Russian parliamentarian to vote against Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and has since been placed on a suspected terror list, according to Russian authorities.
Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of being responsible for two drone strikes against the Kremlin.
In a statement, the Kremlin said: “We regard these actions as a planned terrorist attack and an assassination attempt,” adding that “Russia reserves the right to take countermeasures where and when it deems appropriate.”
According to Ponomarev, the members of the partisan group inside Russia are usually “young people, students, residents of big cities. I am aware of partisan activity in approximately 40 cities in Russia,” he told CNN.
“All the partisan groups have their own focus, their specialty, their core knowledge. Some of them are focusing on railway sabotage, some of them are burning down military recruiting posts. Some of them are attacking pro-war activists, some of them they are carrying out computer attacks,” he said.
According to Ponomarev, drone strikes inside Russia are a “new line of operation” for the groups, which he says pose a “real threat.”
“What Putin is selling to the nation and especially to the elites is the feeling of invulnerability and security. And the partisans are ruining both. In reality, they are saying that the war is here and you personally are not safe,” Ponomarev said.
Ukraine denies any involvement in what Russia claims was an attempted drone attack on the Kremlin.
“Ukraine is waging an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said in a statement shared on Twitter.
“We note with interest the increasing number of mishaps and incidents that are occurring in different parts of Russia. The appearance of unidentified UAVs at power facilities or on the territory of the Kremlin can only indicate the guerrilla activities of local resistance forces,” he added.
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