Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of having fired dozens of drones at one of President Vladimir Putin\u2019s residences, an accusation that Ukraine called a \u201clie\u201d aimed at undermining US-led efforts to end the war.<\/p>\n
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who does not typically announce drone strikes, said Ukraine had fired \u201c91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles\u201d at Putin\u2019s home in the Novgorod region between late Sunday and early Monday, all of which were shot down.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the complete degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has shifted to a policy of state terrorism, Russia\u2019s negotiating position will be reconsidered,\u201d Lavrov said, without elaborating or providing evidence for Russia\u2019s assertions.<\/p>\n
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia\u2019s claim \u201ca complete fabrication\u201d designed to undermine the peace process, but US President Donald Trump \u2014 who held a call with Putin earlier Monday \u2014 directed his criticism at Kyiv.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like it. It\u2019s not good,\u201d Trump told reporters of the alleged attack at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. \u201cYou know who told me about it? President Putin told me about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a delicate period of time. This is not the right time,\u201d Trump added.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s accusation comes at a pivotal moment in the peace process.<\/p>\n
Ukraine says it has agreed to 90 percent of a US-drafted peace plan \u2014 including the issue of post-war security guarantees.<\/p>\n
But the issue of territory remains unresolved, and Russia \u2014 which has been advancing on the battlefield for months \u2014 has repeatedly rejected plans that do not yield to its maximalist demands.<\/p>\n
In his call with Trump on Monday, Putin said he was still committed to the peace process but would \u201crevise\u201d Russia\u2019s negotiating position in light of the alleged drone attack, according to the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, describing it as a \u201cspecial military operation\u201d to demilitarise the country and prevent the expansion of NATO.<\/p>\n
Kyiv and its European allies say the war, the largest and deadliest on European soil since World War II, is an unprovoked and illegal land grab that has resulted in a tidal wave of violence and destruction.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Territory main sticking point \u2013<\/p>\n
Trump said a peace deal was \u201cvery close\u201d following talks with Zelensky on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Zelensky announced on Monday the United States had finally promised security guarantees in a post-war settlement \u2014 albeit for 15 years, with the possibility of an extension.<\/p>\n
But the key issue of territory and the future of the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine remains unresolved.<\/p>\n
Putin has been pushing for full control of Ukraine\u2019s eastern Donetsk region as part of a post-war settlement and said Monday that his army still aimed to take it and three other Ukrainian regions Moscow claims as its own by force.<\/p>\n
In Kyiv, where residents have been living under relentless Russian attacks for almost four years, few were hopeful of a breakthrough.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity guarantees have already been signed before \u2014 and what did that give us? Absolutely nothing,\u201d photographer Anastasiia Pashchenko told AFP.<\/p>\n
In Moscow, where criticism of Russia\u2019s invasion is banned, residents told AFP they wanted the fighting to end, but on the Kremlin\u2019s terms.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly Russia can put forward some conditions,\u201d said 53-year-old engineer Alexei.<\/p>\n
Nikita, a 23-year-old who fought in Ukraine for a year, lauded Russia\u2019s advance in eastern Ukraine, even if it came \u201cat a cost\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cRussia is a superpower that still needs to be reckoned with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of having fired dozens of drones at one of President Vladimir Putin\u2019s residences,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":662199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[522,197535,332,24563],"class_list":{"0":"post-662198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-international","9":"tag-mna","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-ukraine-russia-conflict"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115807888686533839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=662198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/662198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/662199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=662198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=662198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=662198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}