Ukraine war live updates: U.S. diplomat visits Paul Whelan, White House denies link to Kremlin drone attack

The director of America's top spy agency warned lawmakers Thursday that Russia and China will take advantage of the U.S. potentially defaulting on its debt.

"It would be almost a certainty that they would look to take advantage of the opportunity," U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said before the Senate Intelligence Committee when asked about the national security consequences of the U.S. teetering on the edge of a fiscal cliff.

Haines, who leads America's 18 intelligence agencies, said that Russia and China would attempt to highlight "the chaos within the United States, that we're not capable of functioning as a democracy."

In February, former Secretaries of Defense Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel warned that the federal government defaulting on its bills, a historic first, will weaken America's national security.

"The consequence of debt-ceiling brinksmanship is a dangerous self-inflected wound that tells both our friends and our enemies that we cannot be trusted. Such brinksmanship weakens our national security," the former Pentagon chiefs wrote in a letter.

The former secretaries added that Russian President Vladimir Putin "will be watching to measure the credibility of U.S. economic power" while Washington leads efforts to provide Kyiv with security assistance and coordinate global sanctions on Moscow.

Read the full story here.

— Amanda Macias

The Biden administration issued another round of denials that it directed or helped support Wednesday's alleged drone attack on the Kremlin.

National security council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House that the Kremlin's allegations of U.S. involvement are "just lies."

"We're still trying to gather information about what happened, and we just don't have conclusive evidence one way or the other. I know there are lots of questions, but we just don't have conclusive evidence. One thing I can tell you for certain is that the United States was not involved in this incident in any way contrary to Mr. Peskov's lies. That's what they are, just lies," Kirby said, referring to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Meanwhile, State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel declined to say whether U.S. officials have spoken to Russian counterparts about the attack.

"The United States was not involved nor had a role in this at all," Patel said, adding that the U.S. is "still unable to confirm the authenticity of these reports."

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not spend the night at the Kremlin, following a drone attack on Wednesday.

Russia has claimed that Ukraine and the U.S. were behind the alleged drone attack.

Haines told the Senate Armed Services Committee that intel agencies do not currently have enough information to determine who was behind the attack.

— Amanda Macias

Technical personnel from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and the United Nations will meet on Friday to discuss a deal that allows the exports of Ukrainian grains on the Black Sea, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

The evacuation of Turkish-flagged ships and grain shipments from Black Sea ports as part of the deal will be discussed, Akar said.

Ankara is working to extend the deal that will expire on May 18. Friday's meeting would be technical and it would be followed up by a deputy ministers' meeting next week, a Turkish defence ministry statement cited Akar as saying.

"We continue our efforts to ensure that the grain initiative continues in a fast, safe, and planned manner. We got the impression from discussions that these efforts will produce positive results," Akar said.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered what was described as a package deal in July last year - the safe resumption of Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports and a U.N. commitment to help Russian shipments of grain and fertilizer.

Russia has a list of demands it wants met for continuation of the Black Sea pact, which the U.N. said helps tackle a global food crisis aggravated by Moscow's war in Ukraine.

—Reuters

The director of America's top spy agency said the likelihood Russia would resort to using nuclear weapons as Moscow's war in Ukraine drags on is "very unlikely."

"From the intelligence community perspective, it's very unlikely, is our current assessment," U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

U.S. Army Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, also said the scenario was "unlikely" but declined to elaborate further. He agreed to provide details to lawmakers in a closed session.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy visited detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan, who is serving a prison sentence in a Russian penal colony.

"Paul has been wrongfully detained in the Russian Federation for 4+ years and his release remains an absolute priority," the U.S. Embassy in Moscow wrote on its official Telegram channel. "The U.S. government will continue to cooperate with the Russian authorities on his case for the speedy return of Paul home."

Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested by Russian authorities in 2018 on charges of acting as a spy for the United States. At the time he was arrested, Whelan was visiting Moscow to attend a wedding, according to his brother, David Whelan. 

Paul Whelan was convicted in 2020 and sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in a Russian camp known as IK17 in the remote province of Mordovia.

— Amanda Macias

Two ships carrying 45,100 metric tons of agricultural products left Ukraine's ports of Chornomorsk and Yuzhny-Pivdennyi. The ships are destined for Turkey and are carrying sunflower oil and corn.

Under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which established a humanitarian sea corridor, more than 900 ships carrying more than 29 million metric tons of agricultural products have departed from Ukraine's war-weary ports. Russia has previously said that it would not recognize an extension of the deal, which could expire in mid-May.

Ukraine's navy has previously said Russia suspends vessels from moving to and from Ukraine's ports in an effort to weaponize food.

— Amanda Macias

Russia's former president and prime minister called for the "physical elimination" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following a drone attack on the Kremlin.

"There are no options left, except for the physical elimination of Zelenskyy and his clique," Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, said on his Telegram channel.

Medvedev, who regularly issues nuclear threats against Ukraine, accused Kyiv of attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainian officials denied any involvement in the Wednesday attack. The United States said it was unable to validate the Russian accusation.

— Amanda Macias

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that Kyiv would work to create a new tribunal to bring Russia to justice for its war in Ukraine and that Kyiv would not agree to the creation of a hybrid tribunal.

Zelenskyy said during a trip to The Hague that there was already a group of 35 countries that supported the creation of a tribunal.

He also reiterated calls for Ukraine to be allowed to join NATO, saying Kyiv wanted to receive a very clear message while the war is being fought that it will be part of the military alliance after the war.

—Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday Russia was demoralized on the battlefield and that Kyiv believed its planned counteroffensive to recapture occupied land from Russian forces would be successful.

Zelenskyy told reporters in The Hague that foreign visits he has been making this week were focused on replenishing the strength of Ukrainian forces, and that the whole of Ukrainian society was preparing for the counteroffensive.

— Reuters

The U.S. had nothing to do with an alleged drone strike on the Kremlin, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on Thursday.

Kirby said the U.S. did not encourage nor enable Ukraine to strike outside its borders, telling MSNBC "we certainly don't dictate to them the terms by which they defend themselves, or the operations they conduct."

The Kremlin said earlier today that the U.S. was behind a drone attack it claimed was carried out by Ukraine in the early hours of Wednesday. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kyiv could not have carried out the attack without Washington's involvement.

"Attempts to disown this — both in Kyiv and in Washington — are, of course, absolutely ridiculous," the Kremlin spokesman said, Russian news agency TASS reported.

"We know very well that decisions on such actions, on such terrorist attacks, are not made in Kyiv. Namely, in Washington. And Kiev is already doing what what he is told to do," he added. Russia has not presented any evidence backing up its claims that Ukraine and the U.S. were behind the drone attack.

— Holly Ellyatt

Speculation is rife that Russia could have staged a drone attack on the Kremlin that it blamed on Ukraine, with political analysts saying there are a number of reasons why the alleged strike doesn't add up.

Doubts about the authenticity of the Kremlin's attack claim started to emerge yesterday as video footage began to circulate on social media purportedly showing the drone attacks.

Questions are also being asked as to why the Kremlin waited so long, hours after the incident purportedly took place, to announce it — and why Russian social media channels, usually a-flutter with talk about the war with Ukraine, had been silent about an incident that allegedly took place in full sight in central Moscow.

Why, too, did videos of the "attack" only appear after the incident and, indeed, who captured the footage — and what prompted them to start filming it just moments before the drones were shown above the Kremlin?

Defense and political analysts, as well as Western officials, are viewing the incident with skepticism, saying it's highly possible that Russia carried out the "attack" itself, for a number of reasons, including a possible need to prepare Russian society for a firmer war footing.

Read more on the story here: False flag? Analysts says Russia 'likely staged' Kremlin drone attack it blamed on Ukraine and the West

Russian President Vladimir Putin must be brought to justice for his war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday in The Hague, calling for the creation of a war crimes tribunal separate to the International Criminal Court.

"The aggressor must feel the full power of justice. This is our historical responsibility," Zelenskyy said in a speech.

"Only one institution is capable of responding to the original crime, the crime of aggression: a tribunal. Not some compromise that will allow politicians to say that the case is allegedly done, but a true, really true, full-fledged tribunal."

An act of aggression is defined by the United Nations as the "invasion or attack by the armed forces of a state (on) the territory of another state, or any military occupation".

The ICC, which is based in The Hague and which Zelenskyy visited earlier in the day, issued an arrest warrant for Putin for suspected deportation of children from Ukraine.

But it does not have jurisdiction over alleged crimes of aggression, and the European Commission, among others, has already brought its support for the creation of a separate international centre for the prosecution of the crime of aggression in Ukraine, that would be set up in The Hague.

"We all want to see a different Vladimir here in The Hague, the one who deserves to be sanctioned for his criminal actions here, in the capital of international law," Zelenskyy said, referring to Putin.

"I'm sure we will see that happen when we win, and we will win," he said, adding: "Whoever brings war must receive judgement."

Major legal and practical questions remain around how such a court would be legitimized, either by a group of countries supporting it or with approval from the U.N. General Assembly.

Russia is not a member of the ICC and already rejects its jurisdiction. It denies committing atrocities during its conflict with Ukraine, which it terms a "special operation" to "demilitarize" its neighbor.

— Reuters

Russia claimed that the U.S. helped Ukraine plot and carry out an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which it labelled as an assassination attempt on the Russian president, claiming "Washington is definitely behind this attack."

Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that Russia believed Ukraine was implementing plans "dictated" by Washington, but did not provide any evidence to support the allegations.

"Attempts to disown this, both in Kyiv and in Washington, are, of course, absolutely ridiculous. We know very well that decisions about such actions, about such terrorist attacks, are made not in Kyiv but in Washington," Peskov said, according to comments reported by Reuters.

"This is also often dictated from across the ocean. We know this well and are aware of this ... In Washington they must clearly understand that we know this."

Ukraine has denied involvement in the incident, which took place in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Peskov added that the purported drone attack requires a "thorough, urgent investigation" and that Russia's response would involve "well thought-out, balanced steps."

Russia could respond in a variety of ways, Peskov said, without providing further details. On Wednesday, the Kremlin said "the Russian side reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it sees fit."

— Holly Ellyatt

A political adviser to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russia staged a drone attack on the Kremlin that Moscow blamed on Kyiv. 

Ukraine has already vehemently denied any involvement in the incident, which Russia characterized as a "planned terrorist attack" and assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a top Ukrainian official, voiced further doubts over the purported "attack" on Twitter Thursday, stating that video footage of the "attack" — which showed two unidentified figures on the roof of the Kremlin's Senate building as a drone explodes above it — was suspicious, as was the 12-hour delay between the alleged incident and the Kremlin's announcement on it.

Podolyak said that, in contrast, the shelling of the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday that left 23 civilians dead was all too real.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson regional military administration, said Thursday morning that Russia shelled the wider region 98 times over the previous 24 hours, and that residential areas of the region were targeted. Russia denies targeting civilians, despite daily strikes on civilian infrastructure.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia's ambassador to the United States, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday that Russia will respond to an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin "when we consider it necessary."

The Kremlin blamed the "attack" on Ukraine yesterday, calling it an assassination attempt on Russian President Putin, but did not present evidence to back up its allegations. Kyiv denied any involvement in the incident.

"How would Americans react if a drone hit the White House, the Capitol or the Pentagon? The answer is obvious for any politician as well as for an average citizen: the punishment will be harsh and inevitable," Antonov said, according to comments published by Russian state news agency Tass.

"Russia will respond to this insolent and presumptuous terrorist attack. We will answer when we consider it necessary. We will answer in accordance with the assessments of the threat that Kiev posed to the leadership of our country."

Ukraine denied any involvement in an alleged drone attack which the Kremlin alleges Kyiv carried out in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Some Western analysts believe it's likely that Russia staged the "attack" itself as a possible "false flag" attack, and to bolster its portrayal of Ukraine as a "terrorist" state. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Russia's report should be taken with a "very large shaker of salt."

Antonov hit back at those responses, saying U.S. officials had been "striking in their cynicism and absurdity."

"The theses that this act of terrorism was allegedly a 'false flag operation' are blasphemous and deceitful. That is, it was Russia itself that staged a provocation against the heart of our statehood?!," Antonov said.

The ambassador did not detail how Russia might "respond" to the incident but claimed it showed Ukraine did not want peace.

"Our adversaries have no desire to seek peace, to save thousands of lives of ordinary Ukrainians. Definitely, we will take this circumstance into account while working out our strategy to implement the goals and objectives of the special military operation," Antonov said.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine's capital Kyiv and the port city of Odesa were targeted in further attempted drone strikes overnight, Ukrainian officials said.

Serhiy Popko, the head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, said on Telegram that the capital had been targeted again with drones and missiles, marking the "third attack on the capital over four days of May."

"Our city has not suffered such a dense intensity of strikes since the beginning of this year," Popko said. The air raid alert in Kyiv lasted over three hours last night. Popko said the drones and missiles were destroyed, although the debris from destroyed drones damaged some buildings and parked cars. No casualties were reported, he said.

Separately, Ukraine's southern command grouping said 12 out of 15 drones used to attack Odesa overnight were destroyed.

Ukraine's air force said it destroyed 18 out of 24 Iranian-made "Shahed-136/131 combat drones" that were launched overnight by Russia from its Western Bryansk region, and from the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov. The drones were shot down in the northern, central, and southern regions of Ukraine, it said. 

CNBC was unable to immediately verify the details within the reports.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to attack the Kremlin Wednesday, saying the government in Kyiv tried to strike the presidential residence in Moscow using two unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones.

Ukraine denied any involvement in the incident, saying it more likely signaled that Russia was planning a large-scale terrorist attack against Ukraine in the coming days. Russia has often been accused of plotting "false flag" attacks that it can blame on Ukraine and use to justify or escalate its own military aggression against the country.

Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said Wednesday evening that "Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilization."

Several indicators suggest that the strike was internally conducted and purposefully staged, the ISW noted, not least of all because Russia has recently taken steps to increase its domestic air defense capabilities and it was extremely unlikely "that two drones could have penetrated multiple layers of air defense and detonated or been shot down just over the heart of the Kremlin in a way that provided spectacular imagery caught nicely on camera."

In addition, the ISW said it believes that the Kremlin's "immediate, coherent, and coordinated response" to the incident suggests that the attack "was internally prepared in such a way that its intended political effects outweigh its embarrassment."

The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in what it characterized as "a planned terrorist attack" and assassination attempt (Putin had not been in the Kremlin at the time of the alleged incident). It did not provide any evidence that Ukraine had carried out the attack.

— Holly Ellyatt

President Joe Biden said his administration would continue to support newsrooms and journalists around the world in a statement on World Press Freedom Day.

"No journalist – American or not – should have to risk their lives and livelihoods in pursuit of that truth. Evan Gershkovich and Austin Tice weigh heavy on my mind today," Biden said.

"A free press is a pillar of democracy. It allows our government and our society to be self-critical and self-correcting. It educates, illuminates, exposes, and uncovers. It serves as a guardian of truth," he added.

Gershkovich, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Moscow, was arrested more than a month ago by Russian authorities on espionage charges.

Tice, a freelance journalist and former U.S. Marine, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 and ahs been held captive since.

— Amanda Macias

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the U.S. cannot validate Russia's accusation that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight in an attempt to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Reuters.

Blinken said he would take anything coming from the Kremlin with a "very large shaker of salt," according to the report.

He also reiterated the United States' support for Ukraine and said he feels confident that the country will be successful in its effort to retake more of its territory.

— Michele Luhn

Ukraine denied any involvement in an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin that Moscow has blamed on Kyiv.

A senior Ukrainian presidential official, Mykhailo Podolyak, said Ukraine had nothing to do with the drone strike, stating on Twitter that "Ukraine wages an exclusively defensive war and does not attack targets on the territory of the Russian Federation."

Rather, he said the allegations suggest Russia was planning a large-scale "terrorist" attack against Ukraine in the coming days.

Serhii Nikiforov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's spokesman, also told the Ukrainian Pravda news outlet that Kyiv was not involved in the incident.

"We have no information about the so-called night attacks on the Kremlin, but as President Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated, Ukraine directs all available forces and means to liberate its own territories, not to attack foreign ones," he told the news outlet in comments translated by NBC News.

Nikiforov said Russia's description of the incident as a "terrorist" attack was interesting given Russia's repeated attacks against Ukrainian territory over the course of the war.

"A terrorist attack is the destroyed houses in Dnipro and Uman, or a rocket fired at the train station in Kramatorsk and many other tragedies. And what happened in Moscow was obviously an escalation of the situation in light of May 9," alluding to Russia's upcoming Victory Day parade commemorating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The comments come after the Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight, but said the purported attack on the heart of the Russian government was "successfully repulsed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the incident, the Kremlin said. It provided no evidence to back up the claim of an attempted attack.

— Holly Ellyatt

The Kremlin claimed Wednesday that Ukraine tried to strike the Kremlin with drones overnight but said the attack on the heart of the Russian government was "successfully repulsed."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was not injured in the purported attack, which was reported by the Kremlin, which provided no evidence to back up the claim of an attempted attack, however.

"Last night, the Kyiv regime attempted to strike the Kremlin residence of the President of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles," the Kremlin stated, with the claim detailing that "two unmanned aerial vehicles were aimed at the Kremlin."

"As a result of timely actions taken by the military and special services with the use of radar warfare systems, the devices were disabled," the Kremlin said.

"As a result of their fall and the scattering of fragments on the territory of the Kremlin, there are no casualties and material damage."

Putin was not injured and continues to work as usual after the Kyiv attack, it said.

The Kremlin's statement suggested that it viewed the attempted attack as a "planned terrorist action" and an attempt on the life of the president ahead of Victory Day on May 9.

Russia was already believed to be slimming down its Victory Day parade, which commemorates the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in WW2, amid fears of Ukrainian strikes.

Russia reserves the right to respond to an attempt to strike at the Kremlin where and when it sees fit, the Kremlin added, without giving details on how it planned to respond.

Footage began circulating on social media channels purportedly showing what could be an unmanned aerial vehicle appearing to explode above a domed roof of one of the Kremlin's buildings. CNBC wasn't able to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, however.

Ukraine has not publicly commented on the claims. NBC News has reached out to the Ukrainian government for comment but hasn't yet received a response.

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia claims Ukraine attempted attack on the Kremlin with drones; Kyiv denies any involvement