EU warns Moscow not to use drone 'attack' to escalate war

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned Moscow on Thursday to not use an alleged drone attack that it said targeted the Kremlin to escalate its war in Ukraine.

"We call on Russia not to use this alleged attack as an excuse to continue the escalation of the war," Borrell told journalists as he went in to attend an EU ministers meeting in Brussels.

"This is what worries us: this can be used to justify more conscription of people, more soldiers, more attacks on Ukraine."

Borrell said he had heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky deny that Ukraine was behind the attack, which Russia said occurred in the early hours of Wednesday.

Moscow said anti-aircraft units shot down the drones, claiming the alleged attack was an assassination attempt on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who does not sleep in the Kremlin.

Borrell said: "I listened to President Zelensky; President Zelensky said clearly Ukraine is not involved in the attacks, that they are defending their country, but they are fighting on their soil, that they are not attacking Russian soil."

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who on Wednesday called for the "physical elimination" of Zelensky over the purported drone attack, on Thursday criticised Borrell as "an impudent old fool".

Referring to Borrell's warning against an escalation, Medvedev tweeted in English that the alleged attack "is exactly to the escalation of the conflict it will lead".

"This is just what Washington and many dumbheads in Brussels want," Medvedev said.

The White House said Wednesday that the Kremlin was "lying" by accusing Washington of guiding Ukraine to launch the alleged drone attack.