Russia doubles down on claim of Ukrainian attack on Putin residence, but offers no concrete proof

By Tim Lister, Daria Tarasova-Markina

(CNN) — Russia has repeated claims that Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on Monday targeting one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences, with the military offering new comments on the alleged attack.

The Russian defense ministry also published video of a soldier standing over some drone wreckage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the alleged drone attack as “a complete fabrication” by Russia.

US President Donald Trump said Putin told him of the alleged attack in a phone call early Monday. Trump indicated that he took Putin at his word before acknowledging that the attack may not have occurred.

Others have also cast doubt on the Russian claim.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday that it was a “deliberate distraction.”

“Moscow aims to derail real progress towards peace by Ukraine and its Western partners,” she wrote on X.

The defense ministry in Moscow said Wednesday that 91 drones had been launched from northern Ukraine against Putin’s residence near Valdai in the Novgorod region of northwestern Russia.

More than half had been intercepted several hundred kilometers away, the ministry said, without specifying how it knew they were destined for Valdai. The rest had been intercepted over Novgorod between 3 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. local time on Monday, according to the ministry.

The ministry published a map purporting to show the path of the drones and where they had been brought down.

It also released a video of a masked soldier standing in the dark next to the wreckage of a drone, saying its high-explosive warhead was “filled with a large number of striking elements” and was designed to attack civilian targets.

The date and location of the video could not be independently verified.

Another video published by the ministry featured a man described as living close to the presidential residence who said he was woken by the noise.

“It was the first time in my life I had heard the sound of missiles,” said Igor Bolshakov. “I heard it coming from the direction of (Lake Valdai).”

The heavily fortified Valdai presidential residence is situated on the shores of Lake Valdai.

No social media video has been posted of the drones being intercepted, which is unusual when a substantial attack is carried out far from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the attack was aimed at “sabotaging President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful settlement of the Ukrainian conflict.”

Trump has been trying to advance peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, but there are still wide differences between the two sides.

Some Western governments and independent analysts have cast doubt on the claim.

“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,’” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Tuesday.

“And they won’t. Because there’s none. No such attack happened,” Sybiha posted on X.

Asked Tuesday if Ukraine had spoken with the Trump administration following Russia’s claims, Zelensky told CNN in a news briefing: “Our negotiating team got in touch with the American team. They talked through the details, and we understand that it’s fake. And, of course, our partners can always use their tech to check that it was fake.”

Zelensky indicated Tuesday that talks were continuing on other aspects of a potential agreement, including future security guarantees. He said Ukraine had discussed the possibility of an American troop deployment with Trump and with representatives of the Coalition of the Willing. He stressed that any decision to deploy American troops to Ukraine rests with the US president.

Others cast doubt on Russian claims

The US ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, cast doubt on Russia’s claims of a drone attack in an interview with “Fox Business” on Tuesday. “It’s unclear whether it actually happened,” he said. “We’re going to get to the bottom of the intelligence.”

Earlier Tuesday, a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron said that “there is no solid evidence to corroborate the serious accusations made by the Russian authorities, even after cross-checking information with our partners.”

Lithuania, a NATO member bordering northwestern Russia, called Moscow’s claim a false flag operation aimed at justifying possible strikes on Ukraine.

“The circumstances of this alleged strike do not conform to the pattern of observed evidence when Ukrainian forces conduct strikes into Russia,” commented the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), noting the absence of video of air defense operations or statements from local and regional Russian authorities.

The independent Russian media outlet Agentstvo noted Tuesday that the head of the Valdai district had held a live broadcast at 5 p.m. local time Monday, when he did not mention any attack.

Agentstvo said it was also unable to find reports of any drone attacks in the public social media channels of the 14,000-strong town of Valdai, located 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the residence.

On a media call Tuesday, Peskov was asked whether there was any physical evidence of the attack.

“I don’t think there needs to be any kind of ‘evidence’ here, given that such a massive drone raid took place and that, thanks to the well‑coordinated work of our air defenses, they were shot down and neutralized,” Peskov said.

“Zelensky himself is trying to deny it, and many Western media outlets, playing along with the Kyiv regime, are starting to push the line that this supposedly never happened. But these are insane, insane assertions.”

Putin informed Trump about the alleged drone attack in a call between the two leaders on Monday, and he told the US president that Russia was reviewing its position on peace negotiations as a result, according to Russian state radio, citing a call with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Asked about the alleged Ukrainian attack ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump told reporters Monday, “I don’t like it. It’s not good.”

Trump said that when Putin told him about the alleged attack, “I was very angry about it.”

In response to a reporter’s question, Trump added: “You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place. It’s possible, too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did.”

Asked if US intelligence agencies had evidence of such an attack, Trump said: “We’ll find out.”

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CNN’s Billy Stockwell, Victoria Butenko, Pierre Bairin and Lauren Kent contributed to this report.