Putin Confirms Russian Strike on Ukrainian Military Intel HQ in Kiev

Russian President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that Russia carried out an attack on the headquarters of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Defense Ministry in Kiev.

"Since the start of the special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces are striking Ukraine, but using high-precision weapons. They are targeting military infrastructure, arms depots and other targets that could be used for military action," Putin said, speaking to a reporter at an economic exhibition on Tuesday.

"We've already mentioned that we can strike decision-making centers and headquarters. Obviously, the Military Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's headquarters is also such a target. And in response, as you are well aware, the Kiev regime chose a different path, a path to try to intimidate Russia and its citizens, to try to target residential buildings. It is an obvious indicator of terrorist activity," Putin said, referring to Tuesday morning's attempted drone attack on the Russian capital.

The president expressed contentment with the state of Moscow's air defenses, saying they had worked "in a satisfactory manner" in deflecting Tuesday's morning attack, although "there's still some progress to be made."

"We've faced similar problems in Khmeimim in Syria, although of course the size of the territories of our airbase in Syria and Moscow are not comparable, because Moscow is a huge city...But it's obvious what needs to be done to make the air defenses around our capital city better, and we will do that," Putin said.

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Putin said he was concerned by Kiev's apparent attempt to push Russia into a mirror response. "We'll see what we do with this," he said, while expressing hope that ordinary Ukrainians will come to recognize what their government is pushing them towards, not only through the drone attack on Moscow, but attempts to target the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.

The Russian president also delved into a bit of history surrounding the Ukrainian crisis, saying that after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the country came under the control of people seeking to create a Western-backed "anti-Russia." At the same time, he said, NATO, after decades of expansion - despite commitments to Moscow not to do so, had found its way to Ukraine's doorstep, declaring its doors open to Kiev at the alliance's Bucharest Summit in 2008.

"It's not enough that they lied to us when they said that there would be no eastward expansion of NATO. They've even reached Ukraine. And in 2014, as you are well aware, carried out a coup d'etat and started to eliminate everyone who wanted to have normal relations with Russia in one way or another. Besides this, they started a war in the Donbass, and then lied to everyone when they said they want to resolve the situation with peaceful means. Now they admit openly that they were lying, and that they just wanted to win some time to muster their forces" in preparation for a conflict with Russia, Putin said.

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Strike on Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate

Putin's comments follow reports in Ukrainian and Russian media earlier in the day that Russia had attacked and destroyed the headquarters of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate in Kiev in a missile strike. Traffic along the bridge leading to to the island where the directorate is based was blocked off in the early hours of May 30.

The Ukrainian MoD's Main Intelligence Directorate is responsible for coordinating sabotage, terror and drone attacks inside Russia. In recent weeks, its senior officials have made a series of unambiguous statements about the need to ramp up efforts to "kill Russians," both in Russia and around the world.

"All I will comment on is that we've been killing Russians and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine," Military Intelligence Directorate head Kyrylo Budanov said in an interview with US media earlier this month, after being asked to comment on whether Kiev was involved in last year's murder of Russian journalist Daria Dugina. Several weeks later, Budanov confirmed to German media that the list of his agency's targets include Russia's president.