BEIJING, May 5. /TASS/. Kiev’s drone attack on the Kremlin should be viewed as the Ukrainian government’s crossing of the red line, China’s Global Times newspaper said in an editorial, citing local experts.
"The incident crossed the new red line of the Ukraine crisis. After more than one year of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, neither side has attacked the other's government residences and leaders," the paper said.
Chinese experts believe that Moscow will "retaliate in a massive way," including strikes on Ukrainian governmental buildings.
"Some Chinese experts considered the attack as likely to be linked with Ukraine extremists who advocate prolonging the Russia-Ukraine conflict and coercing high ranking Ukrainian officials to continue the fight, while the odds are that there was support or even encouragement from international hegemonic forces for the operation," the Global Times wrote.
"With divergences growing inside Ukraine, the conflict between those advocating for peace and those advocating for war has escalated," the newspaper quoted Wang Xiaoquan, an expert with the Institute of Russian, Eastern European & Central Asian Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
According to local experts quoted by the newspaper, "both sides' willingness to continue the war is undergoing a great test."
In the early hours on Wednesday, Ukraine sent two drones to attempt a strike on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Kremlin, according to the presidential press service. Russian military and security personnel promptly disabled them. Putin was unharmed and is carrying on with his work as usual. The Kremlin regards the incident as a premeditated terrorist attack and an assassination attempt on the head of state. Russia reserves the right to retaliate how and when it sees fit.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said statements by Ukrainian and US officials that they weren’t involved in the drone attack on the Kremlin were laughable. Moscow knows that Kiev chooses the means and targets for its strikes exactly as it’s told by Washington, he said.