Evidence of foiled Kiev attack on Putin residence to be shared with US – MOD
Russia’s Defense Ministry has said it will provide the US with evidence proving that a swarm of Ukrainian drones earlier this week was heading for President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai home.
According to officials in Moscow, a total of 91 UAVs were involved in the failed attack on the night of December 28-29, all of which were shot down by Russian air defenses en route to or over Novgorod Region. The Defense Ministry previously claimed to have obtained “irrefutable evidence of a terrorist attack planned by the Kiev regime on the Russian President’s residence.”
In a statement on Thursday, the Defense Ministry said that “Russian special services managed to retrieve a file containing the flight mission from the navigation unit of one of the Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles destroyed on the night of December 29, 2025 over Novgorod Region.”
According to the press release, after studying the routing data, Russian experts concluded that the “ultimate target of the Ukrainian UAV attack on December 29, 2025 was one of the objects at the Russian president’s residence in Novgorod Region.”
“These materials will be handed over to the US via the established channels,” the ministry added.
On Wednesday, it released a video clip purportedly showing one of the downed Ukrainian long-range drones, which had been struck in the tail-end by Russian air defenses. This allowed the UAV to survive the interception mostly intact.
Russian military officials also insisted that local eyewitness accounts of those who observed air defenses at work over Novgorod Region early on Monday “refute all attempts by Western and anti-Russian media outlets” to argue that there was “no evidence of a terrorist attack by the Kiev regime.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has denied the drone raid ever took place.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” after learning of the incident in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart on Monday, according to Putin’s foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov.
The Kremlin stated earlier this week that the attack was directed not only at Putin, but also “against President Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
China and India, as well as the UAE, Pakistan, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan have all expressed concern over the drone attack aimed at the Russian president’s residence.
