ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that U.S. officials determined that Ukraine did not hit a residence belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone strike last week, disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Ukraine launched a wave of drones against Putin’s state residence in the northwestern region of Novgorod that Russian defense systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also criticized kyiv for launching the attack at a time of intense negotiations to end the war.

The accusation came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy traveled to Florida for talks with Trump about the U.S. administration’s still-evolving 20-point plan aimed at ending the war. Zelenskyy quickly denied the Kremlin’s accusation.

Trump said that “something happened near” Putin’s residence, but that U.S. officials did not find the Russian president’s residence to be a target.

“I don’t believe that attack happened,” Trump told reporters as he traveled back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his home in Florida. “We don’t believe that happened, now that we’ve been able to verify it.”

Trump addressed the US determination after European officials argued that the Russian claim was nothing more than an effort by Moscow to undermine the peace effort.

But Trump, at least initially, appeared to take the Russian accusations at face value. He told reporters last Monday that Putin had also raised the issue during a telephone conversation he had with the Russian leader earlier that day. And Trump said he was “very angry” about the accusation.

On Wednesday, Trump appeared to be downplaying the Russian claim. He posted a link to a New York Post editorial on his social media platform that raised questions about the Russian accusation. The editorial criticized Putin for choosing “lies, hate and death” at a time that Trump said is “closer than ever” to bringing the two sides to an agreement to end the war.

President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he did not believe Ukraine had attacked a residence owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that he did not believe Ukraine had attacked a residence owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

The US president has struggled to keep his promise to quickly end the war in Ukraine and has shown irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin as he tried to mediate an end to a conflict that he boasted during the election campaign could end in a day.

Both Trump and Zelenskyy said last week that they made progress in their talks at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

But Putin has shown little interest in ending the war until all of Russia’s goals are met, including gaining control of all Ukrainian territory in the key industrial region of Donbas and imposing severe restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s postwar army and the type of weaponry it can possess.

___

Madhani reported from Washington.