Scepticism as Russia claims video proves Ukrainian drone attack on Putin residence
Moscow's allegation that Ukraine launched an attack on the Russian president's state residence is being dismissed as a ploy to derail peace talks.
Russia has released video footage it says supports its claim Ukraine deliberately fired dozens of long-range drones at one of Vladimir Putin's residences.
Earlier in the week Moscow alleged Ukraine launched an attack on the Russian president's state residence in Russia's Novgorod region.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied Moscow's allegations about the attack, with other Ukrainian officials dismissing the new footage as "laughable".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv used 91 long-range drones, all of which he alleged had been shot down by air defence systems.
More than half, according to the defence ministry in Moscow, were intercepted several hundred kilometres away.
They did not explain how they knew the drones were headed for the residence near Lake Valdai.
Officials in other countries and experts spoken to by the ABC also cast doubt on the claim.
This was in part over its timing — just a day after the US and Ukraine held progressive peace talks at US President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
The CIA found Ukraine had not targeted the home of Mr Putin, according to CNN, which cited White House officials.
A US national security official briefed on the CIA's findings said they had found no attempted attack had even occurred, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The official said Ukraine had been seeking to strike a military target located in the same region as Putin's residence, but was not aiming close to the property.
But overnight, Russia released footage it said showed a Russian serviceman standing with fragments of a device that he said was a downed Ukrainian Chaklun V-drone, carrying a 6-kilogram explosive device that had not detonated.
The model of the device, as well as the date and location of where the video was taken, could not be verified by Reuters.
The video showed a Russian service member standing next to the remains of an alleged drone. (Reuters: Russian Defence Ministry/Handout)
Other footage allegedly showed a resident of a village in Novgorod stating he had heard air defence rockets in action.
His statement contradicted reports from residents in the village of Valdai, who told independent outlet The Moscow Times they did not hear anything that night.
Fourteen residents said they had received no text alerts of a drone threat, or any buzzing or explosions characteristic of a drone attack.
"There was no noise that night, no explosions, nothing," one was quoted as saying.