Russia to toughen stance after accusing Kyiv of attack
Russia’s stance on talks to end the war in Ukraine will harden after the Kremlin accused Kiev of attacking the Russian presidential residence; Kyiv said this claim was unfounded and aimed at prolonging the conflict.
Kiev has said Russia’s accusations are “lies” aimed at justifying further attacks on Ukraine, and its foreign minister said on Tuesday that Russia had not presented any evidence “because there is no evidence.”
Russia said it attacked a presidential residence in the Novgorod district of Kiev with 91 long-range attack aircraft on Monday.
He said he would retaliate and review his negotiating stance, but would not abandon talks on a possible peace agreement.
“This terrorist act is aimed at collapsing the negotiation process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. he said.
“The diplomatic outcome will be a hardening of the Russian Federation’s negotiating position.”
He said the military knew when and how to respond.
A tougher negotiating stance would complicate U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War II.
Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, controls a fifth of its neighbor’s territory and says its troops are advancing.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday that Russia had not provided any reasonable evidence for its accusations.
Sybiha told channel X: “And they won’t. Because there is no such attack. There was no such attack.”
He said Kiev was disappointed by statements from the United Arab Emirates, India and Pakistan expressing concern about what he said was an attack that never happened.
“Russia has a long history of false claims; this is their signature tactic,” Sybiha said. he said.
Asked by reporters whether there was physical evidence of Russia’s drone attack, Peskov said that air defense forces shot down unmanned aerial vehicles, but the problem of debris was the responsibility of the defense ministry.
Russia did not provide any evidence other than a defense ministry statement that 91 drones were shot down as they headed towards the residence, about 360 kilometers north of Moscow.
The defense ministry said 49 of them were shot in the Bryansk region, 450 km from Valdai, one in the Smolensk region and 41 in the heavily forested Novgorod region.
The defense ministry had not mentioned any attack on the residence in previous military operation reports.
Novgorod Governor Alexander Dronov said that air defense and war planes shot down Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
Peskov said many Western media outlets went along with Kiev’s denial.
“We see that (President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy himself is trying to deny this, and many Western media outlets acting together with the Kiev regime have begun to spread the theme that this did not happen,” Peskov said. he said.
“This is a completely crazy claim.”
Peskov refused to say where Putin was at the time of the attack and said such details should not be made public in light of recent events.
