Donald Trump fumes over alleged attack on Putin’s residence

U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is “very angry” about an alleged Ukrainian attack on one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residences with dozens of drones.

Fallout from the Russian reports of the alleged attack, which are strongly denied by Kyiv, could jeopardize months of protracted U.S.-led talks to end nearly four years of war in Ukraine.

Why It Matters

Commenting on the alleged attack, Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, said Moscow had already decided on “retaliatory” attacks and would harden its stance in peace negotiations.

Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said Moscow was attempting to “undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts.” Ukraine and its European supporters have long accused Russia of dodging committing to a peace agreement while watching on with concern as the Trump administration warmed up relations with the Kremlin.

What To Know

Trump told reporters he was informed about the alleged attack by Putin himself, adding: “I don’t like it, it’s not good.”

“It’s one thing to be offensive, because they’re offensive,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Monday. “It’s another thing to attack his house.”

Kremlin aide Yuriy Ushakov said Trump had been “shocked by this news, literally outraged” during his second phone conversation with Putin in the same number of days. Trump “said he couldn’t even imagine such crazy actions,” said Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to the U.S., according to a Kremlin readout.

Lavrov accused Ukraine of launching 91 long-range drones at Putin’s residence in Russia’s Novgorod region, northwest of Moscow, overnight into Monday. Russia said all the drones were intercepted and there was no damage reported.

Putin has several official homes, including the palatial, fortified complex on the shores of Lake Valdai in Novgorod.

Lavrov said Russia would not withdraw from peace talks but its “negotiating position will be revised.”

“Such reckless actions will not go unanswered,” Lavrov added.

Zelensky called the alleged attack “typical Russian lies” designed to justify further Russian bombardment of Ukraine and put off inking a peace deal.

“Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy,” he said in a statement. “Russia always takes such steps.”

Ushakov said Moscow would rethink its stance on “a number of agreements reached during the previous stage and emerging solutions.” He did not elaborate further.

Despite a rocky relationship between the two leaders, Trump and Zelensky had publicly struck a positive note about the progress of peace talks after a summit in Florida on Sunday, although Trump said “one or two very thorny issues” remained.

One of these points is territorial control, which has long tripped up negotiations. Trump said at the weekend the future of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region was still “unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer.”

Russia claimed to have annexed the two eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk—collectively known as the Donbas—as well as the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of the country shortly after launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine in 2014.

Russia controls the vast majority of Luhansk and about three-quarters of Donetsk.

Russia has been unwilling to let go of its claims to these regions, whereas Kyiv has said its constitution forbids giving up land. In an apparent move to advance peace talks, Zelensky told reporters earlier this month Ukraine may be willing to pull back from parts of the Donbas to form a demilitarized zone, if Russian troops also withdrew. The Kremlin has not indicated it would be willing to do this.

Trump said an agreement on providing security guarantees for Ukraine was “close to 95 percent” completed, paring back a comment from Zelensky, who suggested provisions to ensure Russia did not launch fresh attacks on Ukraine were “100 percent agreed.”

Ukraine had publicized an amended, 20-point version of a formerly U.S. proposal last week.

What People Are Saying

“It’s not the right time to do any of that,” U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters on Monday. “I was very angry about it.”

“This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post to social media.

“We would like to point out that this attack occurred during intensive negotiations between Russia and the United States to resolve the Ukrainian conflict,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.