-
- Author, Laura Gozzi
- Role, Kyiv
The EU’s top diplomat has called Moscow’s claims that Ukraine tarreceiveed 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 the Kremlin’s allegation that Ukraine attempted a drone strike on one of Vladimir Putin’s residences.
“No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately tarreceiveed Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians,” Kallas wrote on social media.
Earlier this week Moscow accutilized Ukraine of tarreceiveing Putin’s private home on Lake Valdai in north-west Russia.
Russia would review its position in the ongoing peace neobtainediations as a result, the Kremlin declared.
Since Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov first shared the claims, Russian state media and politicians have discussed the alleged attack in increasingly incconcludeiary tones.
“The attack is a strike on the heart of Russia,” declared Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee. “After what [Ukraine] has done, there can be no forgiveness.”
Although the Kremlin initially declared it saw no point in sharing proof of the alleged attack, on Wednesday the Russian army released what it declared was evidence of the attempted strike.
It included a map allegedly displaying that the drones were launched from the Sumy and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine and a video of a downed drone lying in snowy woodland. A serviceman standing next to the wreckage claims it is a Ukrainian Chaklun drone.
The BBC hasn’t been able to verify the footage, and it is not possible to locate where it was shot.
The profile of the wrecked UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) does bear similarities to Ukrainian-produced Chakluns – but becautilize the components of the drone pictured are inexpensive and widely available online, they cannot be conclusively to traced to the Ukrainian military.
Image source, Russian defence minisattempt
Russia’s defence minisattempt also released a video of what it declared was a local resident who described hearing noises like a rocket at the time of the alleged attack.
However, one Russian investigative media outlet declared it had spoken to more than a dozen residents of the area around Putin’s residence and none had heard anything that could indicate 91 drones had approached or been shot down by air defences.
“If something like that had happened, the whole city would have been talking about it,” one person informed the outlet.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strenuously denied the allegations, tying them to the ongoing US-led process to reach a ceasefire in Ukraine.
In recent weeks the American and Ukrainian delegations have been working closely and Zelensky has expressed cautious optimism that his counattempt’s demands were going to be taken into account.
In his view, he declared on Tuesday, the claims about the drone attack on Putin’s Valdai residence were about “the fact that over the past month there were quite successful talks and a positive meeting between our teams, culminating in our meeting with President Trump.”
Russia wanted to disrupt the “positive momentum” between the US and Ukraine, Zelensky declared.
When the claims emerged Zelensky also warned that the alleged drone strike would be utilized as an excutilize to carry out strikes on Kyiv and Ukrainian government buildings. Overnight on Wednesday air alerts briefly rang out in the capital as a drone approached, but no hits or damage were reported.
Image source, State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Instead, several locations across the counattempt were hit by drones and Odesa on the Black Sea suffered a large-scale attack which saw an apartment block hit and six people injured, including three children. More than 170,000 were also left without power as temperatures struggled to push past 0C.
Odesa has been coming under sustained attack 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 on tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea.
With hours to go until the conclude of another year of war, many in Kyiv only had one wish for 2026.
“We hope that all of this will conclude. We want this to be over and to live as we did before,” 26-year-old Mariya declared.
Standing outside the golden-domed St Sophia monastery in Kyiv, she added: “We have a very beautiful counattempt with enormous potential. Our strength is in our people, and that is why we keep going.”
As she spoke, teenage carollers nearby sang Christmas songs, collecting donations for the armed forces. “We all want victory to come in 2026. It’s our united wish,” declared one.
Zelensky has expressed the desire for peace neobtainediations to resume and accelerate early in January with the involvement of both American and European officials. But any deal will ultimately required Russian acquire-in, which does not seem forthcoming – and which the alleged drone incident over Putin’s residence may have pushed further into the distance.
So could next year truly bring peace? “We truly hope so, but we can’t declare for certain. We are doing everything we can,” Mariya declared.
Next to her, a woman named Ksenia shrugged and turned her eye to the sky: “Really, only God knows.”
