The recent alleged Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow buildings are "the very same picture" as the 9/11 terrorist attacks that happened in New York in 2001, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a recent Russian TV broadcast.
The drone strikes in question took place on July 29, when two drones hit a building in Moscow City. Two nights later, another drone struck the same building, and Moscow blamed Ukraine for the attacks.
Speaking on the Russian state media show Solovyov Live, Zakharova reportedly explained that the drone strikes that hit Moscow City, a residential high-rise development, were the same methodology as the attacks that destroyed the Twin Towers on 9/11.
Zakharova conceded that in terms of casualties, the attacks are nowhere near comparable. The drone strikes attributed to Ukraine resulted in no casualties whatsoever. The 9/11 attacks, which were the result of terrorists linked to al-Qaeda hijacking commercial airliners and flying them into the high-occupancy Twin Towers in the heart of a densely-populated city, resulted in almost 3,000 deaths and possibly over 25,000 wounded.
Regardless, Zakharova has argued that "the methodology is the same."
"Moscow City is a civilian object, housing not just offices but also residential spaces, as well as civilian office spaces that have nothing to do with the military," she said. "It's the very same picture we see repeating."
In the past, Moscow has referred to alleged Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil as terrorist attacks. This time, however, the Kremlin distanced itself from Zakharova's remarks.
"Moscow City is a civilian object, housing not just offices but also residential spaces, as well as civilian office spaces that have nothing to do with the military."
Maria Zakharova
According to independent Russian media outlet Meduza, Russian Pres Secretary Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin "doesn't see" any comparison between the two.
Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson's history of bizarre remarks
This is not the first time Zakharova has made remarks some may deem unusual.
In 2016, while speaking on Russian state TV, she joked that the US election was the result of manipulation by the Russian Jewish community in New York.
More recently, she said that Western media outlets did not have a full understanding of the complex lore of the Star Wars franchise.