Is Russia going to revenge Kremlin attack? Zelenskyy's life under threat?

Two loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv during the early hours of Thursday after Russia threatened retaliation over claims of Ukrainian drone strikes aimed at assassinating Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to several reports.

It is understood that the Ukrainian air defence is at work in Kyiv and residents have been urged to take shelter, according to Reuters.

Air defences are working in the Kyiv region, the regional military administration said.

Russia has regularly bombarded Ukraine since October last year, striking at a variety of targets. The latest blasts were reported less than 24 hours after a massive Russian strike killed at least 21 people and wounded 48 others in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region on Wednesday.

"A railway station and a crossing, a house, a hardware store, a grocery supermarket, a gas station - do you know what unites these places? The bloody trail that Russia leaves with its shells, killing civilians in Kherson and Kherson region," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted.

He further added, "As of now, 21 people have been killed! 48 wounded! All civilians! In one incomplete day! In one region," he wrote, adding that the country will not forget these and will hold all the perpetrators to account.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's life under threat?

The blasts come after Russia's ex-president Dmitry Medvedev yesterday called for the 'physical elimination' of Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy amid accusations that Kyiv was trying to kill Putin.

Russia claimed it foiled an attack by Ukrainian drones on the Kremlin early Wednesday, calling it an unsuccessful assassination attempt against President Vladimir Putin and promising retaliation for what it termed a “terrorist” act. The Ukrainian president denied it, saying, “We don’t attack Putin or Moscow”, AP reported. 

Putin wasn’t in the Kremlin at the time and was at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti.

Kyiv’s drone attack on the Kremlin has left Russia with no options other than the physical elimination of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky "and his clique," the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, said on his Telegram channel on Wednesday, as per Russian news agency TASS.

In a comment on Kyiv's actions Medvedev wrote: "After today's terrorist attack, there are no options left other than the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his clique."

According to Medvedev, Zelenskyy is not even needed for signing an instrument of unconditional surrender.

"Hitler, as is known, did not sign it either. There will always be some substitute," Medvedev wrote.

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