A swarm of drones over Putin's residence? Russia accuses Ukraine of an assassination attempt. A journalistic investigation undermines the Kremlin's narrative
Ukrainian officials, led by President Volodymyr Zelensky, have widely criticized Russian reports that Putin's isolated and heavily guarded lakeside apartment complex Valdai in the Novgorod Oblast has ever been the target of an attack. Moreover, they accused the Kremlin of fabricating it, which was to be used as a pretext for Russia to withdraw from participation in the ongoing peace talks.
Kyiv Post analysts found compelling and extensive evidence that Ukraine carried out widespread and often successful drone strikes that night on targets elsewhere in Russia or in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories, but little circumstantial or even potentially credible evidence that Putin's home was ever attacked.
The first reports about the alleged attack on Putin's residence were made public by the Russian Ministry of Defense at 21:30 Moscow time on Monday and quickly repeated by Russia's main state-controlled media.
According to an official statement, waves of Ukrainian combat drones escorted by decoys were shot down by local defense forces in fighting that took place late Sunday evening and Monday morning.
Russian Ministry of Defense later increased the number of downed drones, that took part in the alleged attacks on Putin's residence up to 41, of which 23 were allegedly destroyed between 7 a.m. Moscow time on Monday.
Asked by Moscow journalists on Tuesday what evidence the Kremlin had that Putin's residence was indeed attacked, Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: — I don't think any evidence is neededif such a powerful drone attack was carried out and was neutralized thanks to the effective work of anti-aircraft defense. As for the remains [rzekomo zestrzelonych dronów]I can't say anything about it, it's more of a topic for our servicemen.
— We see that Zelensky himself is trying to deny it, and many Western media, ridiculing the regime in Kiev, are starting to spread the information that this was not the case. These are crazy claims, he added.
Peskov did not want to answer journalists' questions about whether Putin was at home during the alleged drone attack. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the attack had taken place and that Russia will take retaliatory action “not diplomatically.”
No evidence of an attack
In recent months and years, Ukrainian drone strikes deep into Russian territory and violations of Russian airspace by aircraft have been widely reported by air defense services and news outlets in both Russia and Ukraine. These sources did not detect drones in the places indicated by the Kremlin.
A Kyiv Post review of breaking news on major news platforms in the Novgorod Oblast, looking for reports of Ukrainian drones in the air or local air defense forces attacking targets, found no authentic information about incoming objects or ground fire.
Independent Russian news platforms Astra and Sota, which usually compete with each other to be the fastest media reporting accurate and verified news from Russia, they did not report any dogfights or even suspicious drone activity over the Novgorod region at a time when the Russian Defense Ministry claimed there was a major Ukrainian attack on Putin's residence.
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The region's most widely read state-approved news platform, 53news.ru, limited its coverage of the alleged Ukrainian attacks on Putin's residence to a verbatim reprint of a defense ministry statement. A special local Telegram channel dedicated to emergencies ChP 53 Veliky Novgorod — an information platform for regional emergency services — did not mention any drone or air defense activity in the region as of noon on Tuesday.
Top news from the region in the last 24 hours included car accidents, a criminal escaping from a local prison, corruption allegations against local officials, road repairs and road accidents. Most of the content concerned preparations for the New Year and holiday celebrations.
On the night from Sunday to Monday, Ukrainian air warning services reported dozens of long-range drones entering Russian airspace in the western Belgorod Oblast, southwestern Krasnodar Krai and Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory. These platforms they did not record any attacks towards the Novgorod Oblastlocated hundreds of kilometers deep into Russia.
Russian airspace monitoring platforms and news outlets have thoroughly documented the attack by a Ukrainian drone swarm on a sorting station near the city of Krasnodar and allegedly shooting down some of the incoming planes. According to local news reports, two civilians were injured and three houses were destroyed as police and fire brigades responded to the scene.
Krasnodar social media reported explosions near the sorting station, but there is no official confirmation of these reports. Russian censorship law prohibits the publication of information about actual damage to state property caused by Ukrainian drone attacks.
In an official statement on Monday, the Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces (SSB) took credit for for a series of very successful attacks on buildings located in the Russian-occupied village of Makeevka, a military pontoon bridge and Russian military equipment near the village of Nikiforovka, and a military materials warehouse near the city of Anthracite.
Video published by SSB shows impacts and explosions near Russian drone launch teams and a military repair unit, including drones hitting soldiers. Other SSB videos and official commentary document an alleged wave of Ukrainian drone strikes that hit and destroyed Russian air defense radars, command vehicles and missile launchers near the city of Chornomorsk in occupied Crimea.
Kyiv Post was unable to independently confirm these specific SSB claims. Official SSB statements since Sunday, analyzed by the Kyiv Post, included no information about any Ukrainian drone strikes in or even near Russia's Novgorod Oblast.
Putin's allies react
On Tuesday, the Kremlin's foreign allies condemned Kiev and called Moscow's “attack” claims true.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sharply condemned Ukraine in an X post on Tuesday, calling the alleged raid on Putin's home a “serious threat to peace, security and stability.” The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates issued an official statement in which it strongly condemned the “attempt to attack” Putin's residence as “deplorable” and said expresses solidarity with Russia and President Putin.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told reporters that he was “deeply concerned“ reports of an escalation in the conflict and said it could cause “further instability.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, December 5, 2025.Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP / AFP
Michael Flynn, former national security adviser to US President Donald Trump, claimed in a social media post, without providing any evidence, that EU operators were involved in the attack on Putin's residence and suggested that European officials approved the alleged attack.
Putin's highly protected palace complex
Situated on the shores of a forested lake about 350 km northwest of Moscow, adjacent to a national park, President Putin's spa complex in Valdai has a swimming pool, sauna, steam bath, golf course, go-kart track, helipad, railway station, special armored train and a main palace with an area of approximately 1,200 square meters.
The air defense – which has been continuously modernized since 2022 – includes, according to open sources, at least 12 Pantsir-S1 short- and medium-range air defense systems, additional air defense radars and at least one S-400 long-range air defense system, which makes the airspace above the property is the best protected in Russia after the Kremlin.
