The Russian Ministry of Defense yesterday published a video of a downed drone that it said Ukraine launched at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in northwest Russia this week, a claim Kyiv has branded a “lie.”
Moscow made the allegation shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held talks with US President Donald Trump in Florida, and Kyiv has called it a “fabrication” intended to “manipulate” the peace process.
“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,” Zelenskiy said.
Photo: AFP
The EU said the video was an attempt to “derail” peace efforts, but Russia has called it a “terrorist attack” and a “personal attack” against Putin, saying it would toughen its negotiation stance in Ukraine war talks.
The video, shot at night in the dark, showed a damaged drone lying in snow in a forested area.
Russia has not said where Putin was at the time, claiming the “mass” drone attack was launched late on Sunday and early Monday at Putin’s home in the Novgorod region.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which documents the Ukraine-Russia conflict, said it had not seen any “footage or reporting that typically follows Ukrainian deep strikes to corroborate the Kremlin’s claims of Ukrainian strikes threatening Putin’s residence in Novgorod Oblast.”
Zelenskiy told the media in a WhatsApp chat that Kyiv was discussing with Washington a possible presence of US troops in Ukraine as part of security guarantees in peace negotiations, which would be a major security boost.
“Of course, we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the [Western] coalition [supporting Kyiv]. We want this. We would like this. This would be a strong position of the security guarantees,” he said.
The White House had no comment on the issue of dispatching US troops to Ukraine under any peace settlement with Russia.
Meanwhile, Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said yesterday.
Four apartment buildings were damaged in the bombardment, Odesa Oblast Governor Oleh Kiper said.
Power company DTEK said two of its energy facilities sustained significant damage.
The company said that 10 substations that distribute electricity in the Odesa region were damaged last month alone.
Russia has this year escalated its long-range attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. In the past few months, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor approaches its four-year milestone next month, it has also intensified its targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.
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