Vladimir Putin

Authorities of St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia, confirmed on Thursday that its airspace has been closed for drones until May 15. Earlier, an aviation source said that St. Petersburg temporarily banned drone flights from the end of April, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the RIA Novosti news agency.

A day after accusing Ukraine of carrying out the alleged attack aimed at assassinating President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was done with Washington's support. Peskov said on Thursday that the US was "undoubtedly" behind the alleged attack, without providing evidence. "Decisions on such attacks are not.

Zelensky, who is currently on a trip to Finland, told reporters in Helsinki late Wednesday night: "We are not attacking either Putin or Moscow; we are fighting on our own territory, defending our villages and towns. We don't even have enough weapons to do that... That's why we didn't attack Putin; we'll leave that to the (international).

Officials said two Ukrainian drones attempted to strike Kremlin early on Wednesday morning, but the raid was thwarted, RT reported. The President was not hurt in the "terrorist attack", and the Kremlin complex did not suffer any damage, Putin's office said, as per the report.

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kg of C4 plastic explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday with the aim of reaching a newly-built industrial estate near Moscow where Putin was due to visit, German newspaper Bild claimed, Daily Mail reported.

"The global trend ... towards multipolarity is inevitable, and will only intensify," Putin said during a videoconference of the Council for Local Self-Government Development on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported. "Those, who do not understand this, and who will choose not to follow this trend, will lose," he added.

Putin travelled to the command centre of the 'Dnieper' battlegroup located "in the Kherson area" and received reports from the group's commander, Colonel General Oleg Makarevich, and Colonel General Mikhail Teplinsky, the commander of Russia's airborne troops, a Kremlin statement said, RT reported.

The two leaders made the remarks on Thursday when jointly chairing a meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State of Russia and Belarus in the Kremlin. At the meeting, Putin noted that "significant achievements" had been made in the integration of 28 prioritised sectors approved during the previous Supreme State Council meeting in 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

Gleb Karakulov, who served as a captain in the Federal Protection Service (FSO), a powerful body tasked with protecting Russia's highest-ranking officials, said that the measures were "designed to mask the whereabouts of the Russian President, whom he described as "pathologically afraid for his life", The Guardian reported.

Tatarsky (40), a staunch supporter of Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, had been speaking at a political event at the Street Food No 1 cafe when the bomb exploded next to him, killing the propagandist and injuring 32 others in what the Kremlin claimed was a 'terrorist attack'.