Russian claims that Ukraine attacked government sites ‘unfounded’, EU’s top diplomat says

The EU’s top diplomat has called Moscow’s claims that Ukraine targeted Russian government sites a “deliberate distraction” and an attempt to derail the peace process.

Kaja Kallas’ comments on social media appear to be a reference to Kremlin allegations that Ukraine attempted a drone strike on one of Vladimir Putin’s residences.

“No one should accept the baseless claims of the aggressor who indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians,” Kallas wrote on social media.

Earlier this week, Moscow accused Ukraine of targeting Putin’s private home on Lake Valdai in northwest Russia.

As a result, Russia would review its position in the ongoing peace negotiations, the Kremlin said.

Since Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov first made the claims, Russian state media and politicians have discussed the alleged attack in increasingly inflammatory tones.

“This attack is a strike at the heart of Russia,” said Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian parliament’s defense committee. “After which [Ukraine] what he did, there can be no forgiveness.”

Although the Kremlin initially said it saw no point in sharing evidence of the alleged attack, the Russian military on Wednesday released what it considers evidence of the attempted strike.

It included a map purportedly showing the drones were launched from the Sumy and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine, as well as video of a downed drone lying in a snow-covered forest.

The BBC has not been able to verify the footage and it is not possible to locate where it was taken.

The profile of the destroyed UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) bears similarities to that of the Ukrainian-produced Chakluns – but because the components of the drone pictured are inexpensive and widely available online, they cannot be conclusively attributed to the Ukrainian military.

The Russian Defense Ministry also released a video of what it said was a local resident who described hearing noises like a rocket at the time of the alleged attack.

However, a Russian investigative media outlet said it had spoken to more than a dozen residents in the area around Putin’s residence and that none of them had heard anything that might indicate that 91 drones had approached or been shot down by air defenses.

“If something like this had happened, the whole town would have been talking about it,” one person told the outlet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vigorously denied the allegations, linking them to the ongoing US-led process to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine.

In recent weeks, the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations have worked closely, and Zelensky has expressed cautious optimism that his country’s requests will be addressed.

In his view, he said Tuesday, the allegations regarding the drone attack on Putin’s residence in Valdai concerned “the fact that over the past month, quite successful negotiations took place and a positive meeting between our teams, which culminated in our meeting with President Trump.”

Russia wanted to disrupt the “positive dynamic” between the United States and Ukraine, Zelensky said.

When these claims came to light, Zelensky also warned that the alleged drone strike would be used as a pretext to carry out strikes against kyiv and Ukrainian government buildings. On Wednesday night, air alerts were briefly sounded in the capital of an approaching drone, but no impact or damage was reported.

Instead, several locations across the country were hit by drones and Odessa, on the Black Sea, suffered a large-scale attack that hit a building and six people were injured, including three children. More than 170,000 people were also left without electricity as temperatures struggled to rise above 0°C.

Odessa has suffered sustained attacks for several weeks. The intensity of the strikes appears to have increased since Putin’s threat in early December to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea in retaliation for drone attacks against oil tankers of the Russian “ghost fleet” in the Black Sea.

Hours before the end of another year of war, many in kyiv had only one wish for 2026.

“We hope that all this will end. We want this to stop and we can live like before,” said Mariya, 26.

Standing in front of kyiv’s golden-domed St. Sophia Monastery, she added: “We have a very beautiful country with enormous potential. Our strength lies in our people, and that is why we continue.”

As she spoke, teenage singers nearby sang Christmas carols, collecting donations for the armed forces. “We all want victory in 2026. It is our common wish,” said one of them.

Zelensky expressed the hope that peace negotiations would resume and accelerate in early January with the participation of American and European officials. But any deal will ultimately require Russian buy-in, which does not appear to be the case – and which the alleged drone incident over Putin’s residence may have pushed back even further.

So could next year really bring peace? “We sincerely hope so, but we can’t say for sure. We are doing everything we can,” Mariya said.

Next to her, a woman named Ksenia shrugged her shoulders and turned her eyes to the sky: “Really, only God knows.”