Trump ‘very angry’ after Putin accuses Ukraine of attack on presidential home
SOURCE:Sydney Morning Herald|BY:Michael Koziol
Moscow provided no evidence of the alleged attack, which Ukraine vehemently denies, but is using it to withdraw from previously agreed concessions on the war.
New York: Russia has accused Ukraine of targeting Vladimir Putin’s home with drones in an incendiary, unproven claim that has Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the defensive less than 24 hours after key peace talks with US President Donald Trump.
Although Moscow provided no evidence of the alleged attack, and Zelensky vehemently denied it occurred, Trump said he was “very angry” after being told about it by Putin in a phone call – their second in two days.
President Donald Trump said he was very angry about the alleged attack after hearing about it directly from Russian leader Vladimir Putin.Credit: AP
“I don’t like it, it’s not good. I heard about it this morning. You know who told me about it? President Putin told me about it. Early in the morning, he said he was attacked,” Trump said.
“It’s a delicate period of time. It’s one thing to be offensive … it’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that … I was very angry about it.”
The US president made the comments as he spoke to the media following wide-ranging talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, Florida time.
Asked by a reporter whether there was any evidence of Putin’s claims – including from US intelligence services – Trump gave the Russian leader the benefit of the doubt.
Putin’s lavish and highly private lakeside estate, known as Valdai.
“We’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place – that’s possible too, I guess, but President Putin told me this morning it did,” Trump said.
The Kremlin issued a statement from Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, who said Putin had informed Trump that Ukraine used long-range drones to attack the president’s residence in the Novgorod region. The Russian statements did not name the residence, but one of Putin’s secretive hideouts – known as Valdai – is located in a forest there.
“The Russian side clearly stated that such reckless terrorist acts will, of course, not go unanswered and will meet with the most serious response,” Ushakov said. Trump was “literally outraged” by the information, he added.
“He [Trump] said that he could not even imagine such irrational actions,” Ushakov said. “This will undoubtedly affect the approaches of the United States in the context of working with Zelensky, to whom the current administration, as Donald Trump himself said, did not, thankfully, give Tomahawks.”
Putin maintains a residence in Roshchino, north of St Petersburg. While Ushakovs’s statement in English implied Putin’s residence was hit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian air defences destroyed all 91 long-range drones, thwarting the attack.
Ushakov said Russia would now revise its position on issues that it had previously agreed during talks with the US to end the war. “The Americans should treat this with understanding,” he said.
In a further incendiary statement, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who posts propaganda for the Kremlin, called Zelensky “the stinking Kiev bastard” and accused him of derailing peace efforts.
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“He wants war. Well, now at least he’ll have to stay in hiding for the rest of his worthless life,” Medvedev said.
Zelensky strongly denied any such attack took place, calling it a complete fabrication and “typical Russian lies”.
“Ukraine does not take steps that can undermine diplomacy. To the contrary, Russia always takes such steps,” he said. “This is one of many differences between us. It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”
US analysts generally saw the Kremlin’s claims as a ploy to disrupt progress made by Trump and Zelensky when they met at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Tuesday (AEDT).
Putin at a meeting with senior military officers at the Kremlin on Monday.Credit: AP
The two men said they had agreed upwards of 90 per cent of a proposed peace plan, including US and European security guarantees for Ukraine, although there was still disagreement about Ukraine ceding territory to Russia, particularly the Donbas region.
Trump and Putin spoke ahead of the meeting, and again afterwards, in what is emerging as a pattern from the Kremlin to engage directly with the US president before his encounters with Zelensky.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a news conference with Trump on SUnday.Credit: AP
Pro-Ukraine Republican congressman Don Bacon warned Trump against believing Putin’s claims. “President Trump and his team should get the facts first before assuming blame,” he posted on X. “Putin is a well-known boldface liar.”
Meanwhile, Trump also warned the US could support another major strike on Iran were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programs.
After his meeting with Netanyahu, the US president suggested Tehran may be working to restore its weapons programs after a massive US strike in June.
“I’ve been reading that they’re building up weapons and other things, and if they are, they’re not using the sites we obliterated, but possibly different sites,” Trump told reporters during the press conference.
“We know exactly where they’re going, what they’re doing, and I hope they’re not doing it because we don’t want to waste fuel on a B-2,” he added, referring to the bomber used in the earlier strike.
Trump also discussed the fragile Gaza peace process with Netanyahu and said he wanted to move to the second phase of the ceasefire deal made in October between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago on Monday.Credit: AP
Israel and Hamas accuse each other of major breaches of the deal and look no closer to accepting the much more difficult steps envisaged for the next phase. Hamas, which has refused to disarm, has been reasserting its control as Israeli troops remain entrenched in about half the territory. Israel has indicated that if Hamas is not disarmed peacefully, it will resume military action.
On Monday, Trump heaped blame on Hamas for not disarming more promptly, arguing that Israel had lived up to its side of the deal.
He warned that Hamas was inviting grave consequences. “There will be hell to pay,” Trump said when asked what he would do if Hamas did not lay down its arms.
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Trump also said the US had “hit” an area in Venezuela where boats were loaded with drugs, in what would be the first known time Washington has carried out land operations in that country since a pressure campaign began against President Nicolas Maduro’s government.
“There was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs,” Trump said. “We hit all the boats, and now we hit the area... It’s the implementation area. That’s where they implement, and that is no longer around.“
It was not immediately clear what target was hit, nor which part of the US government acted. Trump has previously said that he has authorised the Central Intelligence Agency to carry out covert operations in Venezuela. The Central Intelligence Agency, the White House and the Pentagon have declined to comment.
The Venezuelan government has not commented on the incident Trump described, and there have been no independent reports of it from Venezuela.
