Russia and Ukraine trade barbs over alleged drone attack on Putin residence

Russia and Ukraine continued to trade barbs Tuesday over an alleged drone attack on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin's official residences.

Ukraine has denied that it carried out any such strike, describing it as a "complete fabrication," but the Kremlin said that its military stands ready to retaliate.

Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, on Monday alleged that Ukraine had fired 91 drones at Putin's official residence in the Novgorod region, located between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Lavrov said that the drones, allegedly launched between Sunday night and Monday morning, had been destroyed by air defenses and that no casualties had been reported. It's not clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged incident, and Lavrov provided no further details.

Ukraine denied the claims and instead accused Moscow of trying to undermine peace talks.

"Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump's team," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on X.

"This alleged 'residence strike' story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia's own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war. Typical Russian lies."

Russian state media reported that Putin called U.S. President Donald Trump following the incident and told him that Russia would "revise its stance" in ongoing peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Russia's allegation came a day after Zelenskyy held in-person talks with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, with both leaders saying progress had been made on a 20-point peace plan and an agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy commented Monday that Moscow was trying to undermine peace talks between the U.S. and Kyiv, saying: "Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps. This is one of many differences between us."

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said it had noted Zelenskyy's denial and said the Western media was "playing along with Ukraine." Asked whether Russia would produce evidence for the alleged drone attack, Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, said that was a matter for the military.

Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, commented Tuesday on X that "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.' And they won't. Because there's none. No such attack happened."

Russian state media reported that Trump had expressed outrage at the alleged attack during a phone conversation with Putin on Monday.

Kremlin presidential aide Yuri Ushakov told the press that Trump was "shocked by this information, literally outraged" at "such reckless actions," state media agency Tass reported. Ushakov added that it was stated that the incident would affect the U.S. approach to working with Zelenskyy.

Trump was later directly asked for his reaction to the alleged drone attack and appeared to side with Russia's version of events.

"I learned about it from ‌President Putin today. I was very angry about ‌it," he told reporters in Florida on Monday.

"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," he added.

Some commentators on social media said that Russia had aimed to use the alleged drone attack as a way to gauge Trump's attitude toward Ukraine, and to undermine — or stress test — potential security guarantees that Kyiv could receive as part of a peace deal.

"This is how supposedly ironclad 'security guarantees for Ukraine' would fall apart: one Russian false-flag operation — or just a lie ... and they're gone," Olena Halushka, co-founder of the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory, commented on X.

When asked if there was any U.S. intelligence showing the attack actually took place, Trump admitted it's "possible" it didn't actually happen. But he added, "President Putin told me this morning it did."