Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky denies drone attack on Putin residence after Trump says it angered him

For three days since the latest Russian air strikes on Ukraine, Olena Pazhydaieva has been without electricity or heating in her flat in Vyshhorod, a satellite town about 20km north of Kyiv.

With night-time temperatures falling to minus 3C, she now spends much of the day with her six-year-old son in a small shelter equipped with heat and power, allowing her to work and charge essential devices.

Around 20 people gather inside the building, labelled an “islet of warmth and power”, plugging in phones and laptops to stay connected.

“After the last attack, we haven’t had electricity for the third day,” Pazhydaieva said. “We’re forced to work here, where we can charge our laptops. It’s good there’s internet.”

Russian drone and missile strikes have repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing widespread outages. The latest large-scale attack cut power to about 19,000 customers in the Kyiv region, according to the energy ministry.

The shelter is part of a nationwide network of “resilience points” set up to help residents cope. Still, daily life remains difficult. “We went to an after-school group today and it was freezing. All the kids were wearing jackets,” she said. “At least it’s warm here.”

Pazhydaieva said she had little confidence in US-backed peace efforts, particularly after US president Donald Trump suggested Russia’s leader wanted Ukraine to prosper.

“When missiles are flying at us, those words don’t really add up,” she said.

US president Donald Trump said his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Monday was productive.

“We have a couple of issues that we’re going to get resolved, hopefully, and if we get them resolved, you’re going to have peace,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday a bilateral agreement had been outlined with Trump on security guarantees for Ukraine. Trump said they were only 95 per cent ready and Zelensky said on Monday he had sought a 50-year security deal.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, in a wide-ranging interview with state news agency RIA published late on Monday, said Ukraine and Western countries had to come to terms with the fact that Russia held the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine.

“Our principled position remains unchanged. The strategic initiative rests wholly with the Russian army,” Lavrov said.

Trump said he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of the security efforts in Ukraine with US backing. Any such arrangement would be complicated, however, as Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine would be unacceptable.

Zelensky told Fox News in an interview that aired late on Monday that Ukraine could not win the war without US support and that he did not trust Russian president Vladimir Putin.

“I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine,” Zelensky said.

Earlier on Monday, the Ukrainian president said two main issues in the 20-point peace proposal remained to be resolved: control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which is in Russian hands, and the fate of the Donbas area.

Russia controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including the Crimean Peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.

Russia has signalled a more hardline approach towards ending its war with Ukraine.

This comes as Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine had tried to attack Vladimir Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region west of Moscow earlier this week with 91 long-range drones, which were all destroyed by Russian air defences.

No one was injured and there was no damage, he said in comments reported by Russian media.

“Such reckless actions will not go unanswered,” Lavrov said in a statement, describing the attack as “state terrorism” and adding that targets had already been selected for retaliatory strikes by Russia’s armed forces.

Reuters could not independently verify Lavrov’s comments. Neither Lavrov nor any other Russian officials offered any evidence for the attack assertions. It was not clear where Putin was at the time.

Lavrov said the attack took place during negotiations about a possible peace deal, and said Russia would review its negotiating stance but not quit the negotiations.

Denying Ukraine had planned such an attack, Zelensky accused Russia of preparing the ground to strike government buildings in Kyiv.”It is clear that we had a meeting with Trump yesterday, and it is clear that for the Russians, if there is no scandal between us and America, and we are making progress.

For them it is a failure, because they do not want to end this war,” Zelensky told reporters via WhatsApp.

He added: “I am sure they are simply preparing the ground for strikes, probably on the capital, probably on government buildings.”

Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of trying to attack president Vladimir Putin’s residence and vowed retaliation, providing no evidence for a claim Kyiv dismissed as baseless and aimed at derailing arduous peace talks.

The angry exchanges between the warring neighbours on Monday including a statement by Russia that it was reviewing its stance in negotiations in response to the attack dealt a new blow to prospects for peace in Ukraine.

US president Donald Trump said Putin had told him about the alleged attack in a phone call on Monday morning, which had angered him.

Still, Trump repeated his belief that a peace deal may be near.”It’s one thing to be offensive,” Trump told reporters.

“It’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it.”

On Sunday, Trump met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Florida and the US president said they were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war, although “thorny” territorial issues remained.

On Monday, Putin struck a defiant tone, telling his army to press on with a campaign to take full control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region. The Kremlin repeated demands for Kyiv to pull its forces out of the last part of the Donbas area that they still hold in eastern Ukraine.

Putin told Trump in Monday’s phone call that Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, was reviewing its stance following the reported drone attack, an aide said. Zelensky dismissed Russia’s allegation as “a complete fabrication” and the Kremlin’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war.

After the call with Putin, Trump told reporters outside his home in Palm Beach, Florida, that he had no further information about the alleged attack.

“I don’t like it, it’s not good,” Trump said. Asked if US intelligence agencies had evidence of such an attack, Trump said: “We’ll find out.”

President Vladimir Putin has formally enacted changes granting Russia the unilateral right to ignore judgments issued by foreign and international courts in criminal cases.

This controversial decision comes as Ukrainian and European nations continue their concerted efforts to impose penalties on Moscow for its ongoing actions in Ukraine.

Donald Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine looked fragile on Monday as Volodymyr Zelensky lashed out at Russian “lies” about a drone attack on one of Vladimir Putin’s residences, accusing the latter of trying to undermine diplomatic efforts.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov alleged that Ukraine had launched 91 long-range drones at the forest retreat on Lake Valdai overnight, but all had been shot down with no damage reported.

Mr Zelensky dismissed the claim as “lies” that he said were cynically intended to “undermine diplomacy and justify dragging out the war”.

The Independent’s James C. Reynolds has this story:

Russia will respond to what it said was an attempted Ukrainian attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence, TASS state news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying on Tuesday.

“There will be a response for this,” TASS cited Zakharova as telling Russia’s public broadcaster.

Moscow did not provide evidence to support its assertions that Ukraine tried to attack Putin’s residence and Kyiv dismissed Russia’s claims as baseless and designed to undermine peace negotiations.