Trump ‘very angry’ about alleged attack on Putin’s residence

Summary

• Trump said Putin told him Ukraine attacked Putin's residence, a claim Kyiv denies as a "lie".
• Trump expressed concern that the alleged attack could disrupt his peace efforts and said, "It's not good".
• Trump stated he had a "very good talk" with Putin and promised to investigate the alleged attack, saying, "We'll find out".

PALM BEACH, Florida - US President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” when he heard from Russian President Vladimir Putin about an alleged attack on one of his residences
– the latest complication in the US push to resolve the war in Ukraine.

Mr Trump said on Dec 29 that he had heard about the purported attack from Mr Putin in their call earlier in the day.

“It’s one thing to be offensive, because they’re offensive,” Mr Trump told reporters in Florida. “It’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the Russian claims as a “new lie” and warned that Moscow could be using it as a pretext to prepare an attack on government buildings in Kyiv.

The tit-for-tat over the alleged drone attack comes a day after Mr Zelensky
met
Mr Trump
in Florida, with the two leaders expressing optimism about the prospects for a peace deal. 

Those hopes were struck a fresh blow after Mr Trump’s Dec 29 call with Mr Putin, when the Russian leader told his US counterpart that Moscow would revise its negotiating position on Ukraine, according to the Kremlin’s readout of the call.

Mr Putin said Moscow intends to work closely with the US on peace efforts but will reconsider a number of previously reached agreements, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told Russian newswires.

Mr Ushakov added that Mr Putin assured Mr Trump that Moscow will look to continue working with US partners to achieve peace and that the two leaders agreed to maintain their dialogue.

Mr Trump’s call with Mr Putin, the second in as many days, follows a flurry of diplomatic activity at the year’s end as the US President pushes to secure a resolution to Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine – a conflict he had pledged to end on his first day back in office.

While White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that Mr Trump and Mr Putin had held a “positive call”, it remains unclear whether the US President is any closer to that goal. 

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier on Dec 29 that Ukraine attempted to attack a presidential residence in the Novgorod region, more than 400km north-west of Moscow, with 91 drones, adding that Russia would retaliate and that targets had already been selected. 

His counterpart, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, on Dec 29 cast it as a fabrication and a pretext to derail the peace talks.

Mr Zelensky’s meeting with Mr Trump on Dec 28 delivered no clear breakthrough but saw the US President hail what he called “a lot of progress”, though it might take a few weeks to conclude and there was no set timeline. 

Mr Zelensky said on Dec 29 the peace plan was “90 per cent agreed”.

The US and Ukrainian presidents spoke with European leaders after their meeting. 

Ukraine is seeking a meeting with European partners and Mr Trump in January, Mr Zelensky has said, followed by a separate meeting with Russian officials “in one format or another”.

The Coalition of the Willing group will meet in early January to discuss its support for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post on X on Dec 29.

Ukrainian officials toiled over recent weeks to revise a 28-point draft plan
originally proposed by the US but seen as overly favourable to Russia.

The latest version has 20 points, but Moscow has warned that it includes elements it will not accept, including on the size of Ukraine’s post-war military.

Among the major sticking points left to be resolved: the future of Ukraine’s Donbas region, which is partially occupied by Russian forces. Russia has insisted on maximalist demands for territory, including lands that it does not fully control. 

Russia also wants guarantees against future eastwards expansion by the NATO military alliance and on Ukraine’s neutral status if it joins the European Union, as well as clarity on the removal of sanctions and on hundreds of billions of dollars of Moscow’s frozen state assets in the West, according to a person close to the Kremlin. 

Mr Zelensky, for his part, said he asked Mr Trump for US security guarantees lasting as long as half a century to help deter any future Russian invasion. Current proposals under discussion as part of a peace plan set out a 15-year term
with the possibility for an extension.

“I would like the guarantee to be much longer,” Mr Zelensky said on Dec 29 in an audio message to reporters. “We would like to consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years, and then it will be a historic decision by Trump.”

Even amid ongoing negotiations, Russia has continued to hammer Ukraine with drone and missile attacks targeting cities and energy infrastructure, looking to press its military campaign and maximize the pain felt by civilians during winter.

Mr Putin on Dec 29 held his seventh televised meeting with Russia’s army command since October, highlighting what he described as advances on the battlefield in Ukraine and ordering his forces to continue efforts to seize more territory. BLOOMBERG