Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected Russia’s claim that his country carried out an attack on a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on Monday that the attack had taken place on Putin’s residence in northwestern Russia’s Novgorod region, using 91 long-range strike drones.
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Lavrov said air defence systems shot down the aerial attack, and added that no one was injured.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov said the strike took place on Sunday, “practically immediately after” talks held in Florida between United States President Donald Trump and Zelenskyy on negotiations to end Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Zelenskyy quickly rejected Moscow’s claim and accused Russia of attempting to derail the peace talks.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha also condemned Moscow’s allegation, saying it was aimed at undermining the negotiations.
In a post on X, Sybiha said the claim was intended “to create a pretext and false justification for Russia’s further attacks against Ukraine, as well as to undermine and impede the peace process”.
Russia said it would reassess its negotiating position in light of the alleged attack, with Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova warning that Moscow’s response “would not be diplomatic”.
Later on Monday, Trump said that Putin had told him during a phone call that Ukraine had attempted to attack the Russian president’s residence.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said Putin raised the allegation during their call.
“I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump said when asked whether the claim could affect his efforts to broker an end to the war in Ukraine. “I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.”
When asked whether there was evidence to support the allegation, Trump said, “We’ll find out.”
Peace talks under pressure
The developments come as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches its fourth year.
Zelenskyy said last week that a 20-point peace plan was “90 percent agreed” upon and that US-Ukraine security guarantees were “100 percent agreed” upon.
But major sticking points remain in relation to the future of territory in the east of Ukraine that Russia has occupied.
Zelenskyy has reiterated that the issue should be decided by the Ukrainian people, suggesting that different aspects of any deal could be put to referendums.
Trump and Zelenskyy have both expressed optimism that a peace deal could be close following the talks in Florida on Sunday.
Zelenskyy said on X that he had spoken by phone with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics and Finnish President Alexander Stubb, updating them on his meeting with Trump and the state of negotiations.
He has sought to balance relations with European allies and the US as he faces pressure from Trump to reach an agreement to end the war.
Fighting continues on front line
Meanwhile, fighting continued across multiple fronts in Ukraine, with Russia’s army saying its forces captured the village of Dibrova in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
In the southeastern Zaporizhia region, at least one civilian was killed and another injured in a Russian attack on the city of Orikhiv, according to regional Governor Ivan Fedorov. He said Russian guided aerial bombs struck the front-line city, killing a 46-year-old man and injuring a 49-year-old woman.
In northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said Russian shelling had injured three people over the past 24 hours. A 73-year-old woman was injured in the village of Hroza, a 54-year-old woman in Zolochiv, and a 73-year-old man in Novoplatonivka, he said.
Russia claimed its forces were advancing or improving positions across multiple regions, including Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that 89 combat engagements had been recorded along the front line since the start of the day. Fighting was ongoing in six sectors, with Russian forces concentrating their main efforts on the Pokrovsk sector, according to an operational update published by Ukrinform on Monday.
