Moscow/Kiev, Dec 30, (dpa/GNA) – Russian President Vladimir Putin, has told US President Donald Trump that, he intends to revise his position in negotiations for an end to the war in Ukraine, after an alleged attack by Kiev on one of his residences, according to the Kremlin.
Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov said Trump and Putin had spoken again on Monday, following a meeting between the US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida the previous day to discuss a possible peace plan.
During the call, the Russian leader informed Trump that Ukrainian forces had supposedly tried to attack one of his presidential residences in the western Novgorod region with dozens of drones, a claim that was swiftly rejected by Kiev.
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the attack overnight from Sunday to Monday did not result in any damage or injuries, with Russian air defences destroying all 91 drones. He accused the Ukrainian leadership of resorting to state terrorism and said targets for retaliatory strikes in Ukraine had already been identified.
Trump confirmed that Putin had informed him of the alleged attack on Monday morning.
Asked by journalists about the claims while welcoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump initially said: “I just heard about it actually, but I don’t know about it.”
But when pressed again later on, the US president said that “President Putin told me about it early in the morning,” adding that the news made him “very angry.”
“It’s no good,” Trump said. “This is not the right time. It’s one thing to be offensive because they were offensive. It’s another thing to attack his house.”
In this context, Trump also noted that he had refused to supply Ukraine with Tomahawk long-range missiles, which would have enabled the Ukrainian military to strike deep in the Russian hinterland.
Ushakov said Putin had stressed to Trump “that the Russian side wants to continue to work closely and fruitfully with its American partners to find ways to achieve peace.”
Russian media reported the presidential residence targeted by Ukraine was located near the town of Valday, midway between Moscow and St Petersburg, where Putin is believed to regularly spend weekends with his family.
The Kremlin always makes sure to keep Putin’s private life under wraps, and Ushakov did not say which residence was affected, nor whether Putin had been present at the time of the alleged attack.
Putin has residences available to him in many parts of the country. When travelling outside Moscow, he frequently stays in St Petersburg or in Sochi on the Black Sea.
Zelensky rejected Moscow’s allegations as “typical Russian lies” in several posts on social media. He said the Kremlin was using the invented attack as a pretext, to prepare Russian strikes on government buildings in Kiev.
Despite Trump’s assurances that an agreement to end the war in Ukraine “could be very close,” Sunday’s meeting with Zelensky ended without any tangible results.
Zelensky said he had spoken to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday about the negotiations in Florida, and about the Russian “fake” claims of a drone attack on a Putin residence.
“Putin needs to come to terms with the fact that he must end the war, the strikes, and the bloodshed. Ukraine is doing everything to achieve peace,” Zelensky said in a post on X after his phone call with Merz.
According to Ushakov, Trump also informed Putin about Sunday’s talks with Zelensky.
The US side told Ukraine’s delegation that “Kiev must take concrete steps to finally resolve the conflict instead of hiding behind demands for a temporary ceasefire,” Ushakov said.
Russia has rejected Kiev’s demands for a ceasefire, saying it wants to prevent the Ukrainian military from reorganizing and rearming.
Zelensky was advised “not even to try to achieve a respite for his forces, but to focus on reaching a comprehensive agreement that would lead to a real end to the armed conflict,” Ushakov continued.
He said Trump and Putin planned to remain in contact.
GNA