29.12.2025
Russia has hinted that it might review its participation in ongoing peace negotiations with Ukraine following an attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region.
According to Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov Ukraine allegedly launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence.
But Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky denied the allegations, accusing accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks.
Zelensky dismissed the claim as “typical Russian lies”, intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine.
He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.
Zelensky added on X: “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”
In a statement shared on Telegram on Monday, Lavrov said all of the 91 drones he claimed were launched at Putin’s residence were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defence systems.
He added that there were no reports of casualties or damage as a result of the attack.
“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he said.
The claim by Moscow comes after talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida on Sunday, where Presidents Trump and Zelensky discussed a revised peace plan to end the war.
Zelensky said the US had offered Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, and Trump said an agreement on this point was “close to 95%” done.
Ukraine’s leader described territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the last unresolved matters, and there was little sign of progress on the future of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region – which Russia wants to seize in full.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.
Russia has previously rejected key parts of the plan under discussion. With BBC reports