Ukraine informed US alleged drone strike on Putin residence is fake, Zelenskyy says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed as fake claims that Ukraine carried out a drone strike on the residence of Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin, saying that Ukraine has also informed the United States of this.

Source: Zelenskyy during an online press conference

Quote: "Our negotiating team got in touch with the American team; they discussed the details and we understand that this is fake. And, of course, our partners can always, thanks to their technical capabilities, verify that this was fake.

Strikes on Putin's Valdai residence are fake. Nobody hit it. Is this linked to sanctions? Maybe there is some connection, but in my view it is more linked to the fact there has been a fairly successful conversation and meeting, a positive meeting of our teams over the course of a month, the final point of which was our meeting with President Trump, and we understood the plan, that our advisers will now be working on from 3 January.

Then, clearly, we are meeting with Europeans at the level of leaders; we want to prepare everything and God willing, then we all meet together to take some steps forward towards ending [the war – ed.]. We want a lot of different steps to be made in January. And I don't know whether this is linked to the transfer of Tomahawks or not; I don't want to speculate."

Details: Zelenskyy said that Russian forces continue to strike Ukrainian oblasts and civilian targets. He also said that he did not understand why some countries condemned the alleged strike on Putin's residence.

Quote: "You know, to be honest, it causes confusion and unpleasant feelings that some representatives, such as India, the [United Arab] Emirates and a few other states, said that they condemned the strikes. I'm sorry, they condemned our alleged drone strikes on Putin's residence, which didn't happen.

And where is their condemnation, by the way, that all this time they have been hitting our children and killing people? I don't hear it from India, to be honest, or from the Emirates."

Background:

• Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that Ukraine had struck the residence of Russian leader Vladimir Putin on the night of 28-29 December, warning that Russia's "negotiating position" would be revised as a result.
• Lavrov claimed that overnight, Ukraine attacked Putin's residence in Russia's Novgorod Oblast (probably Valdai) using 91 attack UAVs. He claimed that Russian air defence systems destroyed all the drones. Lavrov said that "Russia's negotiating position will be revised", but added that Russia does not intend to withdraw from the negotiation process with the United States regarding Ukraine.
• Ukraine has officially denied these claims.
• On 29 December, US President Donald Trump said that he knew nothing about the alleged Ukrainian attack on a residence of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin, but would "find out".

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