Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that no evidence would be provided by the Russian government to substantiate the claim it made on Monday that Ukraine had launched a massive drone strike on Vladimir Putin’s residence at Valdai, in northwestern Russia’s Novgorod region.
Describing the alleged incident as a “terrorist act aimed at disrupting the negotiation process”, Peskov said the attack was directed not only against Putin personally, but also against US President Donald Trump and his “efforts to promote a peaceful settlement” of the war in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov originally accused Ukraine of mounting an attack on Putin’s residence on Monday evening, without providing any evidence to support the claim, which was made just hours before a scheduled phone call between Putin and Trump on Monday evening.
Peskov added that a massive Ukrainian drone strike had been neutralised by Russian air defence systems at the time of the alleged attack, and that the search for debris was a matter for the Russian military.
Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said that Trump had been “shocked” and “literally outraged” when he heard about the incident.
“I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump told reporters on Monday when asked about the alleged attack, adding that it was ill-timed. “It’s a delicate period of time. This is not the right time. It’s one thing to be offensive, because they’re offensive. It’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that,” Trump said, according to Reuters.
Zelensky has denied that Ukrainian forces had carried out the attack in a post on X, calling the allegations “typical Russian lies” intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine and undermine diplomatic efforts by Kyiv and Washington.