Despite suffering astronomical casualties for a meager territorial gains this year, Russia managed to survive what Ukraine described as an information operation to stop peace talks and keep fighting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that Ukraine was trying to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin at his 87-kilometer (kilometer) northeast of Moscow on Monday.
“The Kyiv regime used 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to attack the president of the Russian Federation’s Novgorod region, where they reportedly resided. The Russian Armed Forces’ air defense systems completely destroyed UAVs, according to Lavrov in a statement.
Putin wasn’t in residence at the time, he said.
Andrii Sybiha, Lavrov’s Ukrainian counterpart, swiftly refuted the assertion. Russia has not yet offered any conclusive proof of its accusations that Ukraine allegedly attacked Putin’s residence. And they won’t, either. since there isn’t. No such attack took place, according to Sybiha.
Two days later, Russia released images of drone debris lying in the snow, but they were unable to verify the drone’s location, manufacture, or time of downing.
According to the opposition outlet Sota, “Putin’s attack on Valdai’s residence is presumably a Kremlin fake.” Residents of Valdai, where Putin’s “Dinner” residence is located, informed Sota last night that they did not hear the air defense’s mission, which would have shot down 91 drones.
Additionally, Sota noted that drones attacking Valdai “necessarily cross a specially protected airspace with objects of the Strategic Missile Forces, East Kazakhstan region, military aviation, closed administrative units like Solnechny, Lake, etc.
“A drone can only fly to the Dinner residence by miracle,” Sota said.
Lavrov’s assertion also conflicted with a previous report from the Russian Ministry of Defense that only 41 drones had been downed in the Novgorod region between December 28 and December 29.
The Russian Defense Ministry later reported that “one more drone was shot down over Bryansk and one over Smolensk” flying in the direction of the Novgorod region,” according to a later update from the ministry.
Hundreds of kilometers away from Valdai, according to Ukraine observers, are Bryansk and Smolensk.
None of the typical forms of Ukrainian strikes, such as those made available in video, heat signatures, statements from local officials, or local media reports, were included in the alleged attack, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
On social media, Rybinsk oil depot’s successful attack on December 31 was well documented. A week prior, there had been an attack on the Rostov refinery Novoshakhtinsk, as well as a number of other week-long strikes.
What actually occurred?
Following the announcement of the alleged attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with US President Donald Trump in Florida and promised that US forces would work with Ukraine’s security in the event of a Russian-Russian peace agreement.
For the first time in history, the US offered security guarantees, which appeared to give the impression that Polish Premier Donald Tusk was optimistic that the Ukrainian conflict would end sooner than 2026.
He stated at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that “peace is on the horizon.”
The American declaration, for instance, of willingness to participate in security guarantees for Ukraine following a peace agreement, such as the presence of American troops along the Ukrainian border or along the Ukrainian-Russian border, is “the key result of recent days,” Tusk said.
The Coalition of the Willing, or “Ukraine’s allies,” were scheduled to meet in France three days later and in Kyiv on January 3.
When Lavrov said, “Russia’s negotiating position will be reviewed,” Lavrov’s statement added a pall to this optimism. Putin also gave the orders to continue securing the remaining unoccupied territory in the southern Ukrainian province of Zaporizhia on the same day. The region is ruled by Russia, which has three-quarters of the country.
Following his successful meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy claimed that Russia was “looking for a pretext” to escalate hostilities and avoid engaging in peace talks.
He wrote on social media that “Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all accomplishments of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team.”
Trump’s efforts for peace have been repeatedly undermined by Russia, who has refused to cede occupied territory to US and European forces on Ukrainian soil.
Trump’s assertions, however, came across as true.
I dislike it, I don’t like it. Trump told reporters on Monday that it was not good. It’s one thing to be offensive, but it’s another to attack his home. None of that is appropriate at this time. And President Putin just let me know about it. I felt a lot of anger for it.
Other US officials questioned their convictions. Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO, said in an interview that “it’s unclear whether it actually happened. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that US intelligence had determined that Ukraine had not taken Vladimir Putin’s residence into its own hands.
The US president’s meeting with Zelenskyy appeared to be a climax to Moscow’s messaging.
Prior to and following Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump, during which commander-in-chief Valery Gerasimov broadcast exaggerated claims of success, Putin held stage meetings with his General Staff on Saturday, December 27 and Monday.
In 2025, he claimed that Russian forces had seized 334 Ukrainian settlements and occupied 6, 640 square kilometers (2, 564 square miles) of Ukrainian territory. The ISW claimed to have “observed evidence indicating a Russian presence in 4 952 square kilometers (1912 square miles) and 245 settlements.”
Oleksandr Syrskii, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine, claimed that territory that constituted 0.8% of the country’s 603, 550 km2 (233, 032 miles) had been lost. almost 420, 000 Russians have died and are injured, according to the cost.
More than 1.2 million Russian casualties, according to the General Staff of Ukraine, were caused by more than 78,000 artillery systems, 781 aircraft, and nearly 4, 000 missiles, or almost 11,500 tanks and 24 000 armored fighting vehicles.
By the end of 2025, Russian forces had been attempting to occupy Donetsk, a town in eastern Ukraine, for five months. Despite claiming to have taken control of Hulyaipole in the southern Zaporizhia region, they still held 55% of the area. Despite claiming to have seized that area, even Russian military reporters acknowledged that Russian forces were being stifled out of Kupiansk in the northern Kharkiv region.
One Kremlin-friendly outlet cited “systematic exaggeration of successes” as the reason “reserves that were “not needed” for the capture and clearing of Kupiansk were redeployed to other areas due to inaccurate reports on the situation to higher authorities.
Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian cities were documented, but it was still unclear whether they had targeted Valdai. Russia launched 33 missiles and just over 1, 000 drones at Ukraine’s cities during its final week of the year. The Air Force of Ukraine reported that it had intercepted 30 of the missiles and 86 percent of the drones.
Source: Aljazeera
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