US President Donald Trump says he does not believe Russia’s claim that Ukraine launched a drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence. “I don’t believe that strike happened,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on January 4, 2026, adding that “nobody knew at that moment” whether the reports were true.
Trump said “something” had happened near the residence, but that after reviewing the evidence, US officials did not believe Ukraine had targeted it. He later reposted a New York Post article claiming Putin had fabricated the attack.
The Kremlin’s claim
Russia’s Defense Ministry said that on December 28–29 its air defenses intercepted 91 Ukrainian drones aimed at Putin’s residence near Valdai in the Novgorod region. It released video of a downed drone and said the property was not damaged and that Putin was elsewhere at the time. Russian officials used the claim to accuse Kyiv of being insincere about peace talks.
The account raised immediate doubts. Russia said 50 of the drones were shot down over the Bryansk and Smolensk regions, neither of which borders the Novgorod region.
No evidence of an attack
Ukraine and its Western allies disputed the claim from the start. The Institute for the Study of War said there was no evidence of an attack on the Valdai residence and noted that local residents reported no sounds of air defense activity that night. On December 31, The Wall Street Journal reported that US intelligence agencies had concluded Ukraine did not try to strike the residence, an assessment attributed to the National Security Agency and backed by the CIA.
Diplomacy under way
The episode came as efforts to end the war were picking up pace. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had recently traveled to Florida to meet Trump and said a US-backed peace plan was “90 percent ready,” with European leaders due to meet in France to discuss it. At the same time, Zelenskyy accused Russia of carrying the war “into the New Year,” as Russian attacks on the Kyiv region killed at least two people.
Sources
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