President Trump directed a public rebuke at Ukraine Monday after Russia claimed that Kyiv had attacked one of Vladimir Putin’s official residences with 91 long-range drones overnight — despite Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissing the report as “typical Russian lies.”
Ahead of a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump initially told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort that “I don’t know about” the reported assault on the Kremlin tyrant’s home in the Novgorod region before adding “that would be too bad, that would not be good.”
The president then confirmed that his Russian counterpart had “told me about” the assault on a Monday morning phone call that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had described as “positive.”
“This is not the right time,” Trump said about the alleged drone incursion. “It’s one thing to be offensive, it’s another thing to attack his house. I was very angry about it.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed to reporters that all 91 drones had been shot down, and there were no immediate reports of other damage or casualties.
In a statement on social media, Zelensky charged that Moscow was laying the groundwork for strikes on Ukraine following Zelensky’s Sunday meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
“Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team. We keep working together to bring peace closer,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war. Typical Russian lies.”
Lavrov claimed Russia would review its negotiating position in talks to end its nearly four-year-old invasion of Ukraine as a result of the overnight attack — but did not say the Kremlin was walking away from the table.
Russia claims Ukraine attacked Vladimir Putin’s residence with over 90 drones. AP“Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps. This is one of many differences between us,” Zelensky insisted.
“It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”
It was not immediately clear whether Putin was at the residence at the time of the supposed drone attack.
The Novgorod region is located in northwestern Russia, roughly halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The number of official residences Putin maintains is a closely guarded secret. In 2012, opponents of the Russian tyrant published a report claiming that Putin personally owned 20 palaces and villas, nearly half of which had been built since he took office in 2000.
One of that report’s co-authors, former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov, was assassinated in Moscow in February 2015.
Five Chechen men were found guilty of murder-for-hire in 2017 — though the identity and whereabouts of their patron have never been disclosed.






