Moscow on Thursday vowed to provide proof to Washington that Kyiv had attempted to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai state residence, after US President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the allegation.
US national security officials determined on Wednesday that Ukraine had not targeted Putin or any of his residences in the alleged drone operation announced in a shrill declaration by the Kremlin earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Russia countered on Thursday, asserting that forensic analysis of one of the downed Ukrainian drones had yielded navigational data pointing directly to the presidential residence.
“During a special technical examination of the navigation system unit of one of the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles… representatives of the Russian special services managed to extract a flight mission file that had been loaded into it,” Russia’s Ministry of Defense wrote on Telegram.
“Decoding of the routing data showed that the final target of the Ukrainian UAV attack on December 29, 2025, was one of the facilities of the residence of the President of Russia in Novgorod Oblast,” it added, before saying it would transmit the materials to Washington “through established channels.”
Washington has not responded publicly, nor has it confirmed whether it received any materials.
The standoff follows explosive allegations issued by the Kremlin on Monday that Ukraine had launched 91 drones toward Putin’s fortified lakeside compound in Russia’s Novgorod region. A day later, Russian officials said they saw no obligation to present “evidence” to substantiate the claim.
The Kremlin said the purported attack had forced a reassessment of its negotiating posture with Ukraine and warned of imminent retaliation, asserting that targets for its own attack had already been identified.
The claims surfaced shortly after Trump held a nearly three-hour meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, which the US President described as “excellent.” Trump even mooted the prospect of traveling to Kyiv to personally advance peace efforts.
Kyiv dismissed the allegations outright, accusing Moscow of fabricating a justification for future strikes on Ukrainian state institutions and attempting to torpedo a tentative US-led peace track.
External assessments aligned with Kyiv’s position. The Institute for the Study of War said it had found no open-source evidence corroborating Russia’s version of events, while Russian opposition outlet Sota concluded that the alleged operation would have been “technically impossible.”
Facing mounting skepticism, Russia on Wednesday released footage and a map it said supported its account. Ukrainian officials derided the material, with Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesman for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, called it “laughable.”
One graphic published by the Russian Ministry of Defense depicted roughly 50 of the 91 drones allegedly bound for Valdai being intercepted hundreds of miles south of the residence. No explanation was offered for how Russian authorities determined the drones’ final destination.
Russia also circulated a video featuring a person identified as a local resident claiming to have heard air defenses in operation. But 14 residents of a nearby town told independent outlet Mozhem Obyasnit that they received no alerts and heard no explosions or sounds consistent with a drone strike that night.
On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that a Central Intelligence Agency assessment had concluded no attempt had been made to target Putin or his residences. According to the report, Ukraine had instead been aiming at a military installation elsewhere in the Novgorod region, far from the Valdai residence.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe was said to have briefed Trump on the findings. Trump later shared a link on Truth Social to a New York Post editorial titled: “Putin ‘attack’ bluster shows Russia is the one standing in the way of peace.”
The Post’s editorial board accused Putin of choosing “lies, hatred and death” over diplomacy, adding: “Any attack on Putin is more than justified.”
The tone marked a notable shift from earlier in the week, when Trump said he was “very angry” with Ukraine following a phone call with Putin in which the Russian president repeated claims that Ukrainian drones had targeted his residence.