The angry exchanges 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.
On Sunday, US president Donald Trump met Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida and said they were “getting a lot closer, maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war, although “thorny” territorial issues remained.
Putin also struck a defiant tone yesterday, telling his army to press on with a campaign to take full control of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region and 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.
It’s one thing to be offensive. It’s another thing to attack his house
Putin told Mr Trump by phone that Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, was reviewing its stance following the reported drone attack, an aide said. Mr Trump told reporters after the call that he had no further information about the alleged attack.
“It’s one thing to be offensive,” Mr Trump said. “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.” When asked if there was any evidence of such an attack, Mr Trump said: “We’ll find out.”
Mr Trump said the conversation with Putin 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,” Mr Trump said.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Ukraine had tried to attack Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region west of Moscow on December 28-29 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,” Mr Lavrov said, describing the attack as “state terrorism” and adding that targets had already been selected for retaliatory strikes by Russia’s armed forces.
US president Donald Trump and Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands at the start of a joint news conference following a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach. Photo: AP
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Mr Lavrov, in his televised remarks, appeared not to have offered any evidence for his assertions. It was not clear where Putin was at the time. He said Russia would review its negotiating stance but not quit the negotiations.
Denying Ukraine had planned such an attack, Mr Zelensky accused Russia of preparing the ground to strike government buildings in Kyiv, saying Russia wanted to undermine progress at US-Ukrainian talks on ending the war.
“Another round of lies from the Russian Federation,” Mr Zelensky told reporters via WhatsApp.
“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.”
He added: “I am sure they are simply preparing the ground for strikes, probably on the capital, probably on government buildings.”
Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on social media the attack was a fabrication intended to create a pretext for more Russian attacks on Ukraine and to undermine the peace process. He urged world leaders to condemn Russia over its accusations.
“Usual Russian tactic: Accuse the other side of what you are doing or planning yourself,” he said in a post on X.
Mr Zelensky said that security guarantees had been hammered out and agreed in full – but that Mr Trump was only ready to commit to 15 years of upholding peace, far short of the 50 Ukraine had asked for. “I told him that we are already at war and it has been for almost 15 years,” the Ukrainian president said.
“Therefore, I really wanted the guarantees to be longer. I told him that we would really like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years.”
Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump had agreed to consider extending guarantees further but that these guarantees would need be approved by the US Congress as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement.
Mr Trump also said he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of security efforts with US backing. Agreement on such moves would be complicated, as Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine would be unacceptable.
Mr Zelensky said yesterday two main issues in a 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.
It claims Donbas – comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – as well as the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, although they are all internationally recognised as Ukraine’s sovereign territory.
Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw troops from parts of the Donetsk region it has failed to occupy. Ukraine wants fighting halted along current front lines and the US has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine pulls troops back.
Underlining Russia’s intention of standing firm on its territorial ambitions, Putin said yesterday his generals should push on with efforts to secure all of Zaporizhzhia region, of which Moscow already controls around 75pc.
Colonel-General Mikhail Teplinsky, commander of Russia’s Dnieper military grouping, told Putin that Russian forces were 15km from its biggest city, also called Zaporizhzhia.