Vladimir Putin drone attack claims dismissed by Ukraine military expert

Growing allegations that Russia tried to strike a Ukrainian residence used by President Vladimir Putin with drones have been rejected by a top military drone expert, who described the alleged attack as “elusive” and tactically implausible.

Cameron Chell’s comments came as Moscow doubled down on accusations that Kiev has publicly denied, with the drone industry leader arguing the alleged strike announced on Monday was at odds with Ukraine’s drone tactics.

Chell, CEO and co-founder DragonflyThe unmanned aerial vehicle manufacturer, which supplies the US Department of Defense and allied militaries, including Ukraine, said Russia’s claims lack credibility.

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“What makes Ukraine really, really special is that they’ve always been incredibly smart about how they use drones,” Chell told Fox News Digital.

“They’re smart from a cost perspective — let’s call it an efficiency perspective — but they’re also very smart in their tactics,” he added.

“I’m having a hard time understanding that this drone attack even happened at Putin’s residence or that this was something that Ukraine orchestrated for a variety of reasons,” Chell said.

“For example, drones would not have to be launched from a very long distance to get to the top of Putin’s residence,” he added.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair a cabinet meeting outside Moscow on June 4. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Chell’s comments came after Russia doubled down on accusations on Tuesday that it tried to use drones to hit a presidential palace in the Novgorod region in an attempt to disrupt Ukraine’s peace efforts.

Kyiv denied the claim; The timing also raised questions, given the upbeat tone of a recent meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed late Monday that 91 UAVs were seized while en route to Putin’s residence on the shores of Lake Valdai.

His statement appeared to contradict previous records from the Ministry of Defense, which stated that 89 UAVs were shot down in eight regions, 18 of which were over Novgorod, and that 23 more UAVs were later added to them.

But after Lavrov spoke, the ministry claimed that 49 UAVs intercepted over Bryansk, about 300 miles away, also targeted Valdai.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed that 91 UAVs were seized on his way to Putin’s residence late on Monday. (Press Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry via AP telegram channel)

Asked about the wreckage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “a matter that concerns our military” while calling Zelenskyy’s denial and Western skepticism “complete madness”.

Peskov said Russia’s diplomatic stance would toughen, and Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin promised there would be “no pardon” for Zelenskyy.

Chell said the story didn’t make much sense. “To attack Putin’s house, you need long-range, very fast-moving drones,” he said.

To reach such a region, such small drones would need to be launched from much closer location, possibly from within Russia, he added.

“They should have been within about 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] “Or maybe no more than 30 kilometers from Putin’s residence,” Chell said.

“The facility where Putin lives will also be incredibly secure, and so having a series of lower-cost, slower-moving drones coming to this facility would be unbecoming of Ukraine,” Chell said.

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Satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows damage from a Ukrainian drone strike on Belaya Air Base in Russia’s eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk region on June 4. (Maxar Technologies via AP)

“Ukraine also does not announce when they will arrive,” he added.

Chell also noted that night operations would disable GPS or AI-based navigation due to signal jamming and visibility limitations, making launching dozens of drones even less believable.

“Apparently it happened at night, so that’s very difficult for machine vision or AI mapping software,” he said. “So he definitely wasn’t using GPS, because it would have gotten mixed up. There’s a lot of things that don’t add up.”

Chell argued that Ukraine had nothing to gain politically. “They are brave, but in the middle of peace talks, when they need Trump, it makes no sense,” he said. “Ukraine is too politically smart to do that.”

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On Monday, Zelenskyy also said the claim was completely fabricated and accused Moscow of laying the groundwork for more attacks.

Lavrov warned of retaliation but said Russia would continue talks with Washington.

Trump also said he learned about the alleged attack directly from Putin and was “very angry about it.” Asked if there was evidence, Trump replied, “We will find out.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Kremlin for comment.