In a swift response to defuse a brewing diplomatic skirmish, Ukrainian officials on Tuesday vehemently denied Russian claims that Kyiv had used long-range drones to target President Vladimir Putin’s residence. They dismissed the allegations as baseless accusations aimed at derailing ongoing negotiations with the United States.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov alleged that 91 Ukrainian drones had attempted to strike Putin’s residence located at Lake Valdai in the Novgorod region. However, he offered no tangible evidence to substantiate this claim.

Responding to reporters via a voice message sent through WhatsApp, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled the purported strikes on Putin’s Valdai residence as fabrications, emphasizing that “no one struck it.”

Zelenskyy speculated that Putin’s allegations might serve a dual purpose: an attempt to sway Washington into lifting sanctions against Russia and a reaction to successful dialogues and positive meetings between Ukrainian and U.S. representatives over the past month, which culminated in discussions held at Mar-a-Lago, Florida, the residence of U.S. President Donald Trump.

He assured that the details of the alleged attack were thoroughly discussed with the U.S., confident in the U.S.’s ability to verify the falsehood given their advanced technical capabilities. This reassurance came amidst heightened efforts to counter Russia’s narrative.

The urgency to dismiss Russia’s claims intensified when President Trump seemed to give them credence. On Monday, Trump expressed anger, stating he had received information about the supposed attack directly from Putin.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan’s PM Shehbaz Sharif and the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry also expressed solidarity with Russia, with the UAE calling it a “deplorable attack”.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiha said on Tuesday that Kyiv was “disappointed” by the statements from the three countries but did not mention Trump’s comments.

“Almost a day passed and Russia still hasn’t provided any plausible evidence to its accusations of Ukraine’s alleged ‘attack on Putin’s residence’,” he said. “And they won’t. Because there’s none. No such attack happened.”

The accusation is meant to justify Russia’s continuing strike campaign even as peace talks unfold, and to “push the Americans into negative emotions” towards Zelenskyy, said one Ukrainian official with knowledge of the negotiation process.

The attack could not be independently verified. Russia’s defence ministry said on Monday that 18 drones had been destroyed in the region, but did not mention a strike on the Valdai residence until after Lavrov’s accusation.

Ukrainian forces regularly launch long-range drone attacks in Russia’s western regions, but have in recent months almost exclusively focused on hitting energy infrastructure, including refineries and oil terminals.

The allegation came shortly after a meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy in Florida that sought to secure a common negotiating position to end the war in Ukraine.

Though the meeting yielded no tangible results, both sides said they had achieved significant progress, with Zelenskyy saying a security guarantee between Ukraine and the US was “100 per cent ready”.

On Tuesday, Zelenskyy told reporters that he and his team were discussing with Trump and his negotiators the possibility of a US troop presence in Ukraine.

“This can, frankly, be confirmed only by the president of the United States. These are US troops, and therefore it is America that makes such decisions,” Zelenskyy said. “We are discussing this both with President Trump and with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing’.”

Trump previously said publicly that no US forces would be deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace deal. The White House did not immediately comment on Zelenskyy’s claim.

Russia could be aiming to “drive a wedge” between Trump and Zelenskyy by making these claims, said Alyona Getmanchuk, head of Ukraine’s mission to Nato.

She believes Moscow is also looking to push the US to “reconsider the entire architecture of negotiations”, adding: “From the very beginning, Putin has made it clear that he would prefer to strike a deal directly with the American president, without real input from either Ukraine or European partners.”

In the wake of the allegations, Putin told Trump that Moscow would “reconsider its position” on negotiations with Ukraine, according to his foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov. Russia added that the alleged attack would not “go unanswered”.

Zelenskyy said he expected the Russian rhetoric to lay the ground for new attacks on government buildings in Kyiv. In September, Moscow launched a huge drone and missile barrage on the imposing concrete building in the capital, housing the cabinet of ministers.

“As for their previous strikes on our government quarter — on the cabinet of ministers of Ukraine, on Bankova Street, on this area — listen, they strike our entire region every day,” Zelenskyy told reporters.

He added that Ukrainian officials and national security advisers of countries within the so-called coalition of the willing would meet on or around January 3 to discuss the peace plan, with a “leaders’ meeting” planned for January 6 in France. It was not immediately clear if Trump would take part.

The Ukrainian president said he was also “ready for any format of a meeting with Vladimir Putin” if it meant an opportunity to end Russia’s war.

Zelenskyy reiterated his invitation to Trump to fly to Ukraine — a trip that would probably require an agreement with Putin not to launch air strikes.

“That would indicate that we truly have grounds to count on a ceasefire,” he said.

Additional reporting by Laura Dubois and Polina Ivanova