Russian claims of Ukrainian attack on authorities websites ‘unfounded’, EU’s high diplomat says

The EU’s high diplomat has called Moscow’s claims that Ukraine focused Russian authorities websites a “deliberate distraction” and an attempt to derail the peace course of.

Kaja Kallas’ feedback on social media seem to be a reference to the Kremlin’s allegation that Ukraine tried a drone strike on one of Vladimir Putin’s residences.

“No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians,” Kallas wrote on social media.

Earlier this week Moscow accused Ukraine of concentrating on Putin’s personal home on Lake Valdai in north-west Russia.

Russia would review its place in the ongoing peace negotiations as a end result, the Kremlin said.

Since Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov first shared the claims, Russian state media and politicians have mentioned the alleged attack in more and more incendiary tones.

“The attack is a strike on the heart of Russia,” said Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee. “After what [Ukraine] has done, there can be no forgiveness.”

Although the Kremlin initially said it saw no level in sharing proof of the alleged attack, on Wednesday the Russian military launched what it said was evidence of the tried strike.

It included a map allegedly exhibiting that the drones were launched from the Sumy and Chernihiv areas of Ukraine and a video of a downed drone mendacity in snowy woodland.

The BBC hasn’t been ready to confirm the footage, and it is not potential to find where it was taken.

The profile of the wrecked UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) bears similarities to Ukrainian-produced Chakluns – but because the parts of the drone pictured are cheap and extensively out there online, they can not be conclusively to traced to the Ukrainian army.

Russia’s defence ministry also launched a video of what it said was a native resident who described listening to noises like a rocket at the time of the alleged attack.

However, one Russian investigative media outlet said it had spoken to more than a dozen residents of the space around Putin’s residence and none had heard anything that could point out 91 drones had approached or been shot down by air defences.

“If something like that had happened, the whole city would have been talking about it,” one individual instructed the outlet.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strenuously denied the allegations, tying them to the ongoing US-led course of to attain a ceasefire in Ukraine.

In current weeks the American and Ukrainian delegations have been working intently and Zelensky has expressed cautious optimism that his nation’s calls for were going to be taken into account.

In his view, he said on Tuesday, the claims about the drone attack on Putin’s Valdai residence were about “the fact that over the past month there were quite successful talks and a positive meeting between our teams, culminating in our meeting with President Trump.”

Russia needed to disrupt the “positive momentum” between the US and Ukraine, Zelensky said.

When the claims emerged Zelensky also warned that the alleged drone strike would be used as an excuse to carry out strikes on Kyiv and Ukrainian authorities buildings. Overnight on Wednesday air alerts briefly rang out in the capital as a drone approached, but no hits or harm were reported.

Instead, several places across the nation were hit by drones and Odesa on the Black Sea suffered a large-scale attack which saw an residence block hit and six people injured, including three youngsters. More than 170,000 were also left without energy as temperatures struggled to push previous 0C.

Odesa has been coming under sustained attack for several weeks. The depth of the strikes seems to have elevated since Putin’s menace in early December to cut off Ukraine’s access to the sea in retaliation for drone attacks on tankers of Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Black Sea.

With hours to go until the finish of another yr of conflict, many in Kyiv only had one want for 2026.

“We hope that all of this will end. We want this to be over and to live as we did before,” 26-year-old Mariya said.

Standing outside the golden-domed St Sophia monastery in Kyiv, she added: “We have a very beautiful country with enormous potential. Our strength is in our people, and that is why we keep going.”

As she spoke, teenage carollers close by sang Christmas songs, amassing donations for the armed forces. “We all want victory to come in 2026. It’s our united wish,” said one.

Zelensky has expressed the need for peace negotiations to resume and speed up early in January with the involvement of both American and European officers. But any deal will finally need Russian buy-in, which does not appear forthcoming – and which the alleged drone incident over Putin’s residence may have pushed further into the distance.

So could next yr actually deliver peace? “We truly hope so, but we can’t say for certain. We are doing everything we can,” Mariya said.

Next to her, a girl named Ksenia shrugged and turned her eye to the sky: “Really, only God knows.”