Ukraine, EU officials dismiss alleged attack on Putin residence

By Gram Slattery and Jonathan Landay

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Ukrainian and European officials have rejected Moscow's claims that Ukraine targeted a personal residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin with a drone attack this week, an incident that threatens to disrupt U.S.-led peace negotiations heading into the new year.    

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alleged that Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence in the northern Novgorod region with dozens of drones, adding that Moscow would review its negotiating position as a result.

U.S. national security officials have found Ukraine did not target Putin or one of his residences in a drone strike, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

The paper reported the conclusion was supported by a CIA assessment that found no attempt to target Putin or one of his residences. A CIA spokesperson could not be immediately reached for comment.

U.S. President Donald Trump initially expressed sympathy for the Russian charge, telling reporters on Monday that Putin had informed him of the alleged incident and that he was "very angry" about it.  

By Wednesday, he appeared more skeptical, sharing on social media a New York Post editorial accusing Russia of blocking peace in Ukraine. 

UKRAINE ALLEGES RUSSIA TRYING TO SABOTAGE AGREEMENTS

Ukraine has denied it carried out such an attack, describing the allegation as a Russian disinformation campaign meant to drive a wedge between Kyiv and Washington after a meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that both sides described as cordial and productive.

In a detailed briefing paper that Ukraine distributed to European Union delegations on Tuesday and seen by Reuters, Kyiv alleged the Russian allegations were designed to "sabotage" agreements made during the South Florida meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy.

On Wednesday, Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, called Russia's claims "a deliberate distraction."

"No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine's infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war," she wrote on X.

As of Wednesday, there was no independent confirmation of the attack. But Russia's charges - and the European and Ukrainian reaction - underscored how both sides have sought to shape Trump's view of the war in Ukraine, now nearly four years old. 

“There is no evidence” that Putin seeks peace and wants Ukraine to be successful, as Trump asserted last weekend after speaking to the Russian leader, said Kurt Volker, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who served as special representative for Ukraine negotiations during Trump’s first term.

"All evidence is to the contrary,” he added.

The Russian and Ukrainian embassies in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The White House also did not immediately respond. 

RUSSIA RELEASES VIDEO SHOWING DOWNED DRONE

On Wednesday, Russia's defense ministry released video footage showing a senior officer, Major General Alexander Romanenkov, setting out details of how Moscow says it believes Ukraine attacked Putin's Novgorod residence.

The video included footage of a Russian serviceman standing next to fragments of a device that he said was a downed Ukrainian Chaklun-V drone carrying a 6-kg explosive device, which had not detonated.

Ukraine's foreign ministry dismissed the footage, saying it was "absolutely confident" no attack took place.     

Before Lavrov made his accusation on Monday, Novgorod Governor Alexander Dronov said air defense and fighter jets were shooting down Ukrainian drones.

While Trump said on Monday the attack could have been a Russian false flag operation, he has at times appeared willing to accept controversial statements by Putin at face value.

Earlier this year, Trump repeated Putin’s assertions that Russian forces had encircled Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, even as U.S. intelligence indicated that was not true. 

The debate over the alleged Ukrainian attack also comes as some Western intelligence officials have quietly argued Russia has sought to delay additional punitive moves by Washington designed to force Moscow into a peace deal.

Reuters was unable to determine if the U.S. intelligence community has already made an assessment of the alleged attack or presented any relevant findings to Congress.

UKRAINE ALLEGES OFFICIALS COORDINATED COMMENTS

In the Ukrainian briefing paper seen by Reuters, Kyiv noted that in the hours after the alleged attack, various Russian officials made extremely similar comments in public that - in Ukraine's view - suggested pre-coordination among officials in Moscow.

The paper also noted that residents of a town near Putin's Novgorod residence told local media they heard no sounds of air defenses on the night of the alleged attack. 

The Russian defense ministry published inconsistent accounts of the alleged Ukrainian drone attacks.

In a statement posted late on Sunday on its channel on the Telegram messaging platform, the ministry said 89 long-range Ukrainian attack drones were intercepted around the country between 7 a.m. the day before and 11 p.m. that evening.

They included 18 that were hit over the Novgorod region, it said, without alleging that any were involved in an attack on Putin’s residence there.

On Monday afternoon, the ministry issued a second statement that its air defenses had intercepted 91 drones, all of them bound for Putin’s residence, including 41 that were hit over Novgorod, between Saturday and Sunday.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Jonathan Landay in Washington; Additional reporting by Erin Banco in New York and Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow; Editing by Don Durfee, Rod Nickel)