Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday that Ukraine had tried to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence on Valdai Lake in northwestern Novogorod region.
Lavrov said the attack was launched on December 28-29 with 91 long-range drones which were all destroyed by Russian air defences. Lavrov pledged that Kremlin would review its position on US-brokered peace negotiations following the attack that he said amounted to “state terrorism”, stressing that however, his country would continue talks to end the nearly four-year-war. Lavrov said that targets had already been selected for retaliatory strikes by Russia's armed forces. "Such reckless actions will not go unanswered," he said, adding that the attack amounted to "state terrorism." It’s unknown whether Putin was in his residence during the time of the attack.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy denied as “lies” Russia’s claims of drone attack on Putin’s residence near St. Petersburg saying that "Russia is preparing ground to strike Ukraine’s government buildings in Kyiv."
"Russia wants to undermine Ukraine-US progress in talks," Zelenskiy added, calling on the US to "reach to Russian threats accordingly,” Zelenskiy said.
The attack Putin on Monday came a day after Zelenksiy met with US President Donald Trump in Florida as part of ongoing negotiations to bring an end to the war in Ukraine. If confirmed, the attack on Putin will be the second attack on Putin’s residence. In May 2023, Ukrainian drones hit the roof of the Kremlin during the large-scale attack on capital Moscow.
It should be noted that Putin on Monday order his army to scale up the attacks to take full control of Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region after a Russian commander said Moscow's forces were 15 km from its biggest city.
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