KYIV –
As President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine traveled back from Florida on Monday, he could breathe a sigh of relief. His meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss a peace plan seemed to have passed without drama — Trump had neither berated him nor echoed Kremlin talking points, at least publicly. By the standards of past encounters, that counted as progress.
But while Zelenskyy was en route home, President Vladimir Putin was on the phone with Trump, introducing a new twist. Putin claimed that a Ukrainian drone attack had targeted one of his residences in Russia overnight. “I don’t like it,” Trump later told reporters, as he recounted the call. “It’s not the right time to do any of that. I was very angry about it.”
The accusation was just the sort that could derail Ukraine’s diplomatic effort. Zelenskyy swiftly denied it, describing the claim on social media as “a complete fabrication” designed “to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team.” Ukrainian negotiators discussed the claim with U.S. counterparts, Zelenskyy added, and his foreign minister also weighed in.