Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin’s residence and vowed retaliation, providing no evidence for a claim Kyiv dismissed as baseless and aimed at derailing arduous peace talks. The angry exchanges between the warring neighbours on Monday, including a statement by Russia that it was reviewing its stance in negotiations in response to the attack, dealt a new blow to prospects for peace in Ukraine. US President Donald Trumpsaid Putin had told him about the alleged attack in a phone call on Monday morning which had angered him.
However, Trump repeated his belief that a peace deal may be near. “It’s one thing to be offensive,” Trump told reporters. “It’s another thing to attack his house.
It’s not the right time to do any of that. I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.” On Sunday, Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida and the US president said they were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war, though “thorny” territorial issues remained.
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On Monday Putin struck a defiant tone, telling his army to press on with a campaign to take full control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The Kremlin repeated demands for Kyiv to pull its forces out of the last part of the Donbas area they hold in eastern Ukraine. Putin told Trump in Monday’s phone call that Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, was reviewing its stance after the reported drone attack, an aide said.
Zelensky dismissed Russia’s allegation as “a complete fabrication” and the Kremlin’s refusal to take necessary steps to endthe war. After the call with Putin, Trump told reporters outside his home in Palm Beach, Florida, he had no further information about the alleged attack. Asked if US intelligence agencies had evidence of such an attack, Trump said: “We’ll find out.” Russian foreign ministerSergei Lavrovsaid Ukraine had tried to attack Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region west of Moscow on December 28 and 29 with 91 long-range drones which were all destroyed by Russian air defences. No-one was injured and there was no damage, he said in comments reported by Russian media.
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