Russia accused Ukraine of attacking one of Vladimir Putin’s official residences with 91 drones this Monday (29), a day after the meeting between Volodimir Zelensky and Donald Trump to discuss an agreement to end the Russian invasion of his neighbor.
The Ukrainian president denied responsibility for the direct attack, as happened on a previous occasion in 2022, and said the Russians would use the incident to “attack Ukrainian government buildings.” According to military observers, the Tu-22 bombers are already armed with cruise missiles for this purpose.
According to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who told Russian media, the devices were shot down in the Novgorod region near St. Petersburg, about 600 km from the Ukrainian border. There was no damage, the diplomat said.
Lavrov promised “severe retaliation” and said this action would provoke a change in Russia’s position in the negotiations led by the US president, which so far have not gone beyond inflexibility on both sides.
“We will continue to negotiate,” he said, anticipating the criticism he will receive and kyiv’s accusation that the attack was a “false flag,” that is, a fabrication aimed at accusing the adversary.
According to the Russians, the residence attacked is an old complex comprising three dachas, the famous country houses owned by almost all wealthy Russian families. He is known by the nickname Dolgie Borodi (long beards, in Russian) or as Valdai, named after the lake on which he sits.
It is one of Putin’s favorite regions, originally from St. Petersburg, with very dense vegetation. The complex is mainly used as a summer holiday home and can accommodate 320 people. The president’s exact whereabouts are generally hidden except in official newspapers.
He spends a large part of his time at the gates of the capital, in his main residence, but has several palaces across the country. According to Kremlin footage, the president was in Moscow, leading a meeting with his top generals, who gave him a positive picture of the war’s progress this year.
Attention was drawn to Putin’s explicit determination that the military concentrate on taking the capital of the same name, in the southern province of Zaporizhia.
It is one of four areas illegally annexed by Putin in 2022, and during the summit he had with Trump in August, the possibility was raised that the Russian would be satisfied with the 75% he already occupies there – a proportion similar to that of its neighbor Kherson, also incorporated.
In the debates so far, the focus has been on the strategically more valuable Donetsk to the east, where Russian troops control 80% of the area. Zelensky refuses to lose the 20% he still owns, a demand reiterated this Monday by the Kremlin. The Americans are now trying a Solomonic solution, by creating a demilitarized zone.
This was not the first direct action against property associated with Putin during the war. In 2022, Ukrainians caused a stir with one of the first drone attacks against Moscow, when two drones exploded above the Kremlin on the night of May 3.
There were no casualties and the president was not present, but the Russian government described the matter as terrorism. kyiv has never claimed responsibility, widely attributed to its active security services, including by its US allies.
For all the brutality of the conflict, the Russians have so far not attempted to kill Zelensky with a devastating attack. This was suggested by Putin himself last year, when he presented with a spectacular demonstration his new ballistic missile with multiple warheads, tested over the Dnipro.
On the other hand, in addition to incidents against homes, there was a major attack with Ukrainian drones against the region where Putin was visiting this year. Additionally, actions against Moscow are constant, but air defenses in the region around the capital have done their job for now.
The new incident, whatever its nature, tends to impact already difficult negotiations. This Monday, Zelensky said there was a lack of agreement on territorial issues, but announced that Trump had promised him security guarantees against further Russian action for 15 years, without specifying how this would happen.
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