- Russia Doubles Down on Allegations Ukraine Targeted Putin Residence
Officials use the alleged attack as a pretext to threaten retaliation, tougher negotiations
Updated Dec. 31, 2025 The Wall Street Journal
It is known as Dolgiye Borody, or Long Beards, and it is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favored official residences, built on a lake shore in the country’s northwest. In the past, it was used by Soviet leaders Joseph Stalin and Nikita Khrushchev.
The Kremlin has alleged that Ukrainian drones targeted the well-protected site in Novgorod and is using its claim to justify a hardening of its stance in peace negotiations. After the Kremlin declined to provide evidence to back up its assertions, Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday published a video of what it said was a downed Ukrainian drone. The footage, shot in a snowy forest at night, couldn’t be independently verified.
Ukrainian officials from President Volodymyr Zelensky on down have vociferously denied undertaking any such attack. That hasn’t stopped Putin from trying to use the accusations to sour relations between Washington and Kyiv as it looks to weaken Ukraine’s negotiating hand.
Russia says it intercepted 91 drones aimed at the Novgorod residence, which is ringed by sophisticated air-defense systems, according to satellite images reviewed for a 2024 report by the Institute for the Study of War.
President Trump said he was “very angry” after Putin leveled his allegation in a phone call Monday. Asked if the U.S. had evidence such an attack had taken place, Trump replied: “You’re saying, maybe the attack didn’t take place—that’s possible too, I guess, but President Putin told me this morning it did.”
Officials in Moscow have seized on it as a warrant to increase its punishment of Kyiv and target government buildings. Russia also says it is a reason to recalibrate its negotiating points with Trump. So far, Russia has made no concessions or softening of its demands during months of talks toward ending the war, plans for which have become increasingly unacceptable to the Kremlin.
No independent intelligence assessments been made public to confirm the veracity of Russia’s allegation. Russia’s Defense Ministry also released what it said was a witness account of a man living in the area who said he was woken by loud noise.
The Kremlin made its accusation a day after Trump’s nearly three-hour meeting with Zelensky on Sunday, a discussion which the U.S. president praised as “excellent” and even raised the prospect that he might travel to Kyiv to press his case for peace.
Zelensky said Trump had agreed to U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine to deter another Russian invasion, though he acknowledged the duration of the assurances was still a discussion.
The apparent progress toward bringing the two leaders onto the same page put Putin on the back foot, analysts say.
“From Putin’s perspective, the last Mar-a-Lago summit went badly. Russia cannot accept any security guarantees for Ukraine,” said Slawomir Debski, visiting professor of strategy and international relations at the College of Europe in Natolin, Poland. “Since these are precisely the issues that matter, Moscow’s interest is not compromise—but another breakdown of talks.”
Peace talks have evolved in recent weeks from a 28-point plan that was largely informed by Russia’s vision for the end of the conflict, to a 20-point plan that more closely reflects Ukrainian and European concerns.
Kremlin foreign-policy aide Yuri Ushakov said Putin told Trump that the alleged attack would require “the most serious response,” during their call Monday. The Kremlin declined to say whether Putin was at the residence in question at the time.
For Kyiv’s European allies, the Russian allegation was a deliberate distraction. “Moscow aims to derail real progress towards peace by Ukraine and its Western partners,” Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s foreign-policy chief, said on X on Wednesday. “No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the targets and timing of retaliatory strikes had already been determined. He said that while Russia would remain in Trump-led peace talks, its negotiating positions would alter given Kyiv’s embrace of “state terrorism.”
Ukraine has acknowledged its role in some assassinations and sabotage attacks deep inside Russian territory but is adamant that it wasn’t behind any attack on Putin’s residence.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said on X on Tuesday that the lack of plausible evidence from Russia was evidence that the attack didn’t happen.
Since the start of the year, Trump has insisted that Putin is committed to peace, but the Kremlin leader has made no significant steps in that direction, refusing to relinquish his maximalist demands.
In recent weeks, the Russian president has increasingly appeared on national television dressed in military fatigues promising to achieve his goals in Ukraine—in particular the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the entire Donbas region—either through negotiations or by force.
Putin has dangled numerous business opportunities in Russia in front of the U.S. president, in an attempt to maintain momentum in warming bilateral relations, all while refusing to make a peace deal.
“The game may have been up for Putin trying to stay on Trump’s good side without actually ending the war,” said Samuel Charap, a veteran Russian analyst and political analyst at Rand, an American nonprofit global-policy think tank. “Either he was given or made up an excuse to take a harder line.”
Russia’s allies China and India urged Moscow to eschew intensifying the war and called for the continuation of negotiations.
Leonid Slutsky, the head of a pro-Kremlin far-right party in Russia, said punishment should be swift. “It’s not just a provocation against Russia, but sabotage against American peace efforts,” he said.
Meanwhile, Zelensky on Tuesday said the possibility of U.S. troops being stationed in Ukraine was under discussion but would be for Trump to decide. He also announced further meetings between Ukraine and its European allies for early January, including in Ukraine.
Write to Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com and Georgi Kantchev at georgi.kantchev@wsj.com