Ukrainian officials rushed on Tuesday to contain the diplomatic fallout of a Russian allegation that Kyiv’s long-range drones targeted Vladimir Putin’s residence, calling it a falsehood designed to sabotage negotiations with the US.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Monday that 91 Ukrainian drones had targeted the president’s residence at Lake Valdai in the Novgorod region, but provided no evidence.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in a voice note over WhatsApp on Tuesday that the “alleged strikes on Putin’s Valdai residence are a fake — no one struck it”.
He added that Putin’s accusation could be an attempt to persuade Washington to lift sanctions on Russia, but in his view was “linked to the fact that there was a fairly successful dialogue and positive meetings between our teams over the course of a month, culminating in our meeting” at US President Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s negotiating group had “discussed the details” of the alleged attack with the US. “Of course, our partners can always verify that it was a fake thanks to their technical capabilities,” he added.
Efforts to counter Russia’s claims gained added urgency after Trump appeared to take them at face value, telling reporters on Monday he heard about the alleged attack directly from Putin and was “very angry”.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif and the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry also expressed solidarity with Russia, with the UAE calling it a “deplorable attack”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said on Tuesday that Kyiv was “disappointed” by the statements from the three countries but did not mention Trump’s comments.
“Almost a day passed and Russia still hasn’t provided any plausible evidence to its accusations of Ukraine’s alleged ‘attack on Putin’s residence’,” he said. “And they won’t. Because there’s none. No such attack happened.”
The accusation is meant to justify Russia’s continuing strike campaign even as peace talks unfold, and to “push the Americans into negative emotions” towards Zelenskyy, said one Ukrainian official with knowledge of the negotiation process.
The attack could not be independently verified. Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that 18 drones had been destroyed in the region, but did not mention a strike on the Valdai residence until after Lavrov’s accusation.
Ukrainian forces regularly launch long-range drone attacks in Russia’s western regions, but have in recent months almost exclusively focused on hitting energy infrastructure, including refineries and oil terminals.
The allegation came shortly after the meeting on Sunday between Trump and Zelenskyy that sought to secure a common negotiating position to end the war in Ukraine.
Though the meeting yielded no tangible results, both sides said they had achieved significant progress, with Zelenskyy saying a security guarantee between Ukraine and the US was “100 per cent ready”.
On Tuesday, Zelenskyy told reporters that he and his team were discussing with Trump and his negotiators the possibility of a US troop presence in Ukraine.
“This can, frankly, be confirmed only by the president of the United States. These are US troops, and therefore it is America that makes such decisions,” Zelenskyy said. “We are discussing this both with President Trump and with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing’.”
Trump previously said publicly that no US forces would be deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace deal. The White House did not immediately comment on Zelenskyy’s claim.
Russia could be aiming to “drive a wedge” between Trump and Zelenskyy with the accusation, said Alyona Getmanchuk, head of Ukraine’s mission to Nato.
She believes Moscow is also looking to push the US to “reconsider the entire architecture of negotiations”, adding: “From the very beginning, Putin has made it clear that he would prefer to strike a deal directly with the American president, without real input from either Ukraine or European partners.”
In the wake of the allegations, Putin told Trump that Moscow would “reconsider its position” on negotiations with Kyiv, according to his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. Russia added that the alleged attack would not “go unanswered”.
Zelenskyy said he expected the Russian rhetoric to lay the ground for new attacks on government buildings. In September, Moscow launched a huge drone and missile barrage on the cabinet of ministers building in Kyiv.
“As for their previous strikes on our government quarter — on the cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, on Bankova Street, on this area — listen, they strike our entire region every day,” Zelenskyy told reporters.
He added that Ukrainian officials and national security advisers of countries within the so-called coalition of the willing would meet on or around January 3 to discuss the peace plan, with a “leaders’ meeting” planned for January 6 in France. It was not immediately clear if Trump would take part.
The Ukrainian president said he was also “ready for any format of a meeting” with Putin if it meant an opportunity to end Russia’s war.
Zelenskyy reiterated his invitation to Trump to fly to Ukraine — a trip that would probably require an agreement with Putin not to launch air strikes.
“That would indicate that we truly have grounds to count on a ceasefire,” he said.
Additional reporting by Laura Dubois and Polina Ivanova
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