「ウクライナがロシア国民を脅迫」　プーチン氏、モスクワ攻撃を非難

【モスクワＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領は３０日、ウクライナへの侵攻開始後初めてモスクワが本格的な無人機攻撃を受けたことについて、ウクライナ政府はロシア国民を「脅そう」としていると非難した。（写真はロシア・モスクワで、無人機攻撃を受けた集合住宅）
　プーチン氏は、モスクワの防空システムが機能したと述べる一方、今回の攻撃は、ロシアがウクライナ軍情報本部を攻撃したことへの「報復」との見方を示し、「ウクライナ政府はロシア国民を脅す道を選んだ」と語った。
　ロシア国防省は、今回の攻撃には無人機８機が使用され、うち５機を撃墜、３機を無力化したとしている。
　外務省は、ウクライナ向けの西側諸国の支援について「同国指導者をテロなどの無謀な行為に走らせることにつながっている」と批判した。
　ロシア国内ではこの日、ウクライナと国境を接する西部ベルゴロド州がウクライナ軍の攻撃対象となった。州知事によれば、避難所が砲撃を受け、１人が死亡した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/05/31-17:27）

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused Kyiv of seeking to frighten Russians after drones hit Moscow high-rises in the first such attack since the beginning of the Kremlin's assault on Ukraine.
As drones struck in and around Moscow, Russian drones targeted Kyiv for a third straight day while Ukraine gears up for a major offensive against Russian forces.
Officials said no one was seriously injured in Moscow and there was only minor damage to residential buildings, but some locals said they never thought the Russian capital could be hit in this way.
I somehow thought that all of this was somewhere far away, that this would not affect us, and suddenly this has become very close, pensioner Tatyana Kalinina told AFP in southwest Moscow near one of the damaged residential buildings.
Putin said that Moscow's air defence had worked, referring to the attacks as Kyiv's response to a Russian strike on Ukraine's army intelligence headquarters.
The Kyiv regime chose a different path to frighten Russians, Putin said.
The Russian defence ministry said that eight drones were used in the attack, adding that five of them were downed and three disabled.
The foreign ministry blamed the West, saying its support for the Kyiv regime is pushing the Ukrainian leadership towards increasingly reckless acts, including terrorism.
One person was also killed Tuesday in a Ukrainian bombardment on a centre for displaced people in the border region of Belgorod, the regional governor said.
The Belgorod region has in recent weeks been hit by dozens strikes from across the border and seen attempted incursions from armed groups.
- Major embarrassment -
The United States said it did not support attacks inside Russia.
We have been focused on providing Ukraine with the equipment and training they need to retake their own sovereign territory, a State Department spokesperson said.
Two drones crashed into high-rise residential buildings in Moscow's affluent southwest, while a third damaged a residential building in a suburb.
The other drones fell outside Moscow. Some of the debris was found around 15 kilometres (nine miles) from Putin's Novo-Ogaryovo residence.
One video shared on social media showed an explosion followed by a column of smoke rising into the sky.
This month two drones were intercepted over the Kremlin, but Tuesday's attacks were the first time that unmanned aerial vehicles hit residential areas of Moscow, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines in Ukraine.
The raids are likely to be seen as a major embarrassment for the Kremlin, which has gone to great lengths to say the protracted conflict in Ukraine does not pose a threat to Russians.
- 'Not surprised' -
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Kyiv had no direct relation to the attacks.
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two people had sought medical assistance but no one has suffered serious injuries.
The residents of buildings damaged in the strikes were briefly evacuated.
On Profsoyuznaya Street, a residential building with a blown-out window was cordoned off by police but the atmosphere was calm, with children playing outside and people walking their dogs, an AFP correspondent said.
Some of the residents were moved to a nearby school, where they drank tea and watched a Soviet-era movie.
Muscovites told Russian journalists that a drone had also crashed into an apartment on the 14th floor of a high-rise on Leninsky Prospekt but did not explode.
Ukraine said it had downed 29 out of 31 drones, mainly over Kyiv and the Kyiv region in the latest Russian barrage -- the third on the Ukrainian capital in 24 hours.
On Monday, Russia fired a barrage of missiles at Kyiv, sending panicked residents running for shelter in an unusual daytime attack following overnight strikes.
Predictably, many in Ukraine gloated over the drone attacks in Moscow.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Muscovites should feel what it means to live in the conditions that Kyiv has lived in for the past one and a half years.
- Nuclear fears -
Also on Tuesday, UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi urged Ukraine and Russia to adhere to concrete principles to prevent catastrophe at Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
The safety of Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine's southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia has been a concern since Russian forces seized it over a year ago.
Ahead of Ukraine's expected counteroffensive, fears have increased that a nuclear disaster could occur amid increased military activity.
Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), briefed the UN Security Council in New York on his proposals including that there should no attacks near the plant and no storage of arms.
None of its six Soviet-era reactors now generates electricity, but the facility remains connected to the Ukrainian power grid for its own needs, notably to cool the reactors.