Ukraine tried to attack Putin's home: Russia

MOSCOW/KYIV — Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence and vowed retaliation, providing no evidence for a claim Kyiv dismissed as "baseless" and "aimed at derailing arduous peace talks".

The angry exchanges between the neighbors on Monday — including a statement by Russia that it was reviewing its stance in negotiations in response to the attack — dealt a new blow to prospects for peace.

US President Donald Trump said Putin had told him about the alleged attack in a phone call on Monday morning, which had angered him. Still, Trump repeated his belief that a peace deal may be near.

"It's one thing to be offensive,"Trump told reporters. "It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it."

On Sunday, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida and the US president said they were "getting a lot closer, maybe very close" to an agreement to end the conflict, although "thorny" territorial issues remained. On Monday, Putin struck a defiant tone, telling his army to press on with the campaign to take full control of the Zaporizhzhia region.

The Kremlin repeated demands for Kyiv to pull its forces out of the last part of the Donbas area. Putin told Trump in Monday's phone call that Russia was reviewing its stance following the reported drone attack, an aide said. Zelensky dismissed Russia's allegation as "a complete fabrication" and the Kremlin's own refusal to take necessary steps to end the conflict.

After the call with Putin, Trump told reporters outside his home in Palm Beach, Florida, that he had no further information about the alleged attack.

"I don't like it, it's not good," Trump said. Asked if US intelligence agencies had evidence of such an attack, Trump said: "We'll find out."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence in the Novgorod region west of Moscow on Dec 28-29 with 91 long-range drones, which were all destroyed by Russian air defenses. No one was injured and there was no damage, he said in comments reported by Russian media.

"Such reckless actions will not go unanswered," Lavrov said in a statement, describing the attack as "state terrorism" and adding that targets had already been selected for retaliatory strikes by Russia's armed forces.

Trump said his conversation on Monday with Putin was productive.

"We have a couple of issues that we're going to get resolved, hopefully, and if we get them resolved, you're going to have peace," Trump said.

Zelensky said that on Sunday, a bilateral agreement had been outlined with Trump on security guarantees for Ukraine. Still, Trump said they were only 95 percent ready and Zelensky said on Monday he had sought a 50-year security ‍deal.

Lavrov, in a wide-ranging interview with state news agency RIA, published late on Monday said that Ukraine and Western countries had to come to terms with the fact that Russia held the initiative on the battlefield in Ukraine.

"Our principled position remains unchanged. The strategic initiative rests wholly with the Russian army," Lavrov said.

Trump said he expected European countries to "take over a big part" of security efforts with US backing. Agreement on such moves would be complicated, as Russia has said any foreign troop deployment in Ukraine would be unacceptable. Zelensky told Fox News in an interview that aired late on Monday that Ukraine cannot win without US support and that he does not trust Putin.

Earlier on Monday, the Ukrainian president said that two main issues in a 20-point peace proposal remained to be resolved: control of Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, which is in Russian hands, and the fate of the Donbas area.

Agencies Via Xinhua