The Kremlin explosions were real. The rest is confusing, maybe on purpose.

The only indisputable facts about Wednesday’s incident in the Kremlin are that around 2:30 am two explosions went off on Russia’s most important political and cultural symbol, and both Moscow and Ukraine reacted with indignation.

But whose indignation was real and whose outrage was faked?

In this warfare, the battle over the narrative is just as important as the battle on the ground.

Meanwhile him Kremlin often lies and uses its powerful government-controlled media to create alternative realities, in which Ukraine has also proven itself adept distort the truth to serve their war interests.

decipher the narratives andFacing the truth can be tricky, and maybe that’s what it’s all about.

Both sides win when their intentions and methods remain obscured by fog.

Was the apparent drone strike a bold but largely symbolic move by Ukraine to embarrass the president? Vladimir Putin, Are you preparing to lead the annual Victory Day Parade on Red Square next week?

It was a staged a Russian provocation to justify even harsher attacks against the Ukrainian population, or perhaps against the leadership of Ukraine?

Or was he executed not by a government, but by local anti-war Russian partisans or unscrupulous Ukrainian saboteurs?

Russia has angrily accused Ukraine of trying to assassinate Putin in a drone strike and has demanded its right to retaliate.

On Thursday, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskovhe repeatedly claimed on a conference call with reporters that the United States had ordered the attack, without offering any proof.

“We are well aware that decisions on such terrorist actions and acts are not made in Kiev, but in Washington,” he said.

US officials have vehemently denied any involvement.

On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” show, John F. Kirby, head of communications for the White House National Security Council, said, “Peskov is lying, plain and simple.”

Ukraine also denied trying to strike the Kremlin and accused Moscow of fabricating a provocative incident to garner domestic support and justify the escalation.

A Ukrainian attack on Russian government headquarters would be a bold move.

But the Kremlin said nothing about it for 12 hours.

When the press service finally blamed Ukraine, it did so in a statement unusually detailed, suggesting that he wanted the episode to get maximum public exposure.

This has triggered a flurry of public denials in Kiev, as well as some private scratching from Ukrainian officials, who are usually quick to wink and nod to indicate their association with bold and creative covert operations.

They pointed out that the explosions were too small to accomplish much.

“Nice but ineffective, unfortunately,” a senior Ukrainian official said when asked about the attack shortly after the Kremlin released its statement.

“At the moment I don’t know who did it. It seems it wasn’t ours.”

Someone knows what really happened, but no one, for now, speaks.

More than a day later, no new information has emerged that could clarify who was behind the explosions, but that hasn’t stopped inflammatory statements and wild speculation from flourishing.

On Thursday, Russian authorities continued to redouble their efforts.

The foreign ministry released a lengthy statement saying those guilty of carrying out what it called “terrorist attacks” would face “severe and inevitable punishments”.

In this case, both Ukraine and Russia had the means and motives to carry out the attack.

In more than 14 months of war, Ukraine has become an expert in brazen actions laden with symbolic meanings.

Last spring’s attack that sank Russia’s Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, did little to stop Russia’s relentless attacks on Ukraine, but it was a deeply humiliating setback for the Russian military. .

Last summer’s explosion of the only bridge linking Russian territory to occupied Crimea briefly slowed the transport of military supplies, but dealt another blow to Putin, whose forces had failed when it comes to protecting an important strategic asset away from the front lines.

Ukraine spent the war developing deadly drones that terrorized troops on the battlefield and struck hard behind enemy lines.

In December, Ukraine sent explosive drones modified hundreds of kilometers from Russian territory to attack two military bases which damaged aircraft and killed several soldiers.

In these cases and others, Ukrainian officials have not publicly taken responsibility, although they have often not outright denied Ukrainian involvement.

Unofficially, senior officials sometimes acknowledge that their own forces have been involved.

Wednesday’s episode was different.

Senior officials, from President Volodymyr Zelensky to the last, they immediately and unequivocally denied it.

“Ukraine has nothing to do with drone strikes on the Kremlin,” Zelenskyy adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said.

“It makes no sense at all. It provides no military, informational or tactical effect on the eve of an offensive.”

Quick and firm denials may have meaning, but the meaning is left open to speculation.

Podolyak suggested that the blasts were actually a false flag operation by the Kremlin – intended to make it appear that Ukraine was to blame – to justify a possible large-scale attack aimed at undermining Ukraine’s expected counter-offensive.

He did not explain why Moscow would need such justification.

Putin’s army has launched massive attacks and killed civilians since the beginning of the war without feeling the need to make elaborate excuses.

The US embassy in Kiev warned late Wednesday that there was an increased risk of Russian missile attacks, and on Thursday the Ukrainian military said it had shot down missiles and drones over Kiev and Odessa.

Zelensky compared the Kremlin explosions, which Putin’s press service described as a terrorist attack, with the Russian army’s attacks on Ukrainian cities on the same day.

While Russian authorities said the explosions in Moscow caused no injuries, Zelenskyy shared gruesome photos of civilians killed after a Russian attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, in which at least 23 people died at a grocery store and train station, among other civilian targets.

“We will never forgive the guilty,” Zelensky said in an Instagram post.

“We will defeat the rogue state and hold all those responsible accountable.”

The Kremlin, of course, is adept at deception and has never been reluctant to promote blatant lies.

Putin’s stated justification for his invasion – that Ukraine was ruled by a Nazi junta dedicated to violence against Russia – had been fabricated.

Last week, a report on Russian state television depicting a Ukrainian attack on a Russian-controlled city used footage that was actually from a Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Uman, which killed more than 20 people. .

Russia uses this type of distortions to promote an alternate reality that justifies his actions in the war, both for his own people and for his allies, experts say.

Russian officials have already used the Kremlin incident to call for retaliation.

Dmitry Medvedevthe bombastic former Russian president and current deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation – who often gives the most extreme versions of possible Russian actions – said the explosions justified “the physical removal” by Zelensky and “his clique”.

As if that weren’t enough, he added a reference to Adolf Hitler.

Explaining the 12-hour delay between the blasts and the Kremlin’s announcement, Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said Russia’s intelligence services must first conduct an investigation.

Putin was working in the Kremlin on Thursday, Peskov said, and made no special statement about the blasts.

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