Media: Ukrainian drones target Putin residence, Trump reacts with shock

Ukrainian forces attempted to strike the official residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia’s Novgorod region using long-range attack drones, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

According to the minister, the incident occurred overnight on December 29, 2025, when what Moscow described as a Ukrainian attack involving 91 long-range strike unmanned aerial vehicles targeted the Russian president’s state residence in the Novgorod region, TASS reports.

“All unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed,” Lavrov noted, adding that Moscow would revise its negotiating position in response to what he characterised as Ukraine’s shift toward a policy of state terrorism.

Following the incident, reactions also emerged from Moscow regarding the international response to the alleged attack.

The Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that US President Donald Trump was reportedly shocked and angered after learning about the attempted strike on Putin’s residence.

“The US president was shocked by this information, literally outraged. He said he could not even imagine such insane actions [on the part of Ukraine],” Ushakov stressed.

On December 29, 2025, Russian officials alleged that Ukrainian forces had launched a large-scale drone strike against President Vladimir Putin’s state residence in the Novgorod region, claiming all drones were intercepted and warning this would affect Moscow’s negotiating stance.

In response, Zelenskyy strongly denied the accusation, calling the claim a fabrication aimed at undermining ongoing peace negotiations with the United States and cautioning that Russia might use the incident as a pretext for further strikes, potentially against Kyiv.

He argued the timing of the allegation—coming immediately after productive talks with U.S. officials on a peace framework—suggests an attempt to derail diplomatic momentum rather than reflect actual Ukrainian actions.

Ukrainian officials have also stressed that Ukraine targets only legitimate military objectives and urged the international community to recognise the claim as a provocative narrative rather than a verified fact.

By Jeyhun Aghazada