A CIA assessment has concluded that Ukraine did not try to kill Russian President Vladimir Putin at his country residence as alleged by the Kremlin, a source with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.
Ukraine had been aiming to hit a military target in the same region as the Russian president’s country residence, the source said.
The director of the CIA, John Ratcliffe, briefed President Donald Trump on the issue earlier Wednesday. Afterward, Trump posted a link to a New York Post editorial with the headline “Putin ‘attack’ bluster shows Russia is the one standing in the way of peace.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on the assessment and the presidential briefing.
The CIA declined to comment.
Earlier this week, Trump told reporters that he was “very angry” after Putin claimed in a phone conversation that Ukrainian drones had attacked his residence on the shore of Lake Valdai in the northern Russian region of Novgorod. Russia has not provided any public evidence for its claims.
The phone call on Monday followed a nearly three-hour meeting the day before between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property in Florida.
Trump and Zelenskyy said after the meeting that they were “very close” to a deal, an assessment the Kremlin agreed with on Monday, though it continued to make hard-line territorial demands.
Zelenskyy vehemently rejected Russia’s allegation in posts on social media, accusing Moscow of trying to sabotage peace negotiations.
“Russia is at it again, using dangerous statements to undermine all achievements of our shared diplomatic efforts with President Trump’s team,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
“This alleged ‘residence strike’ story is a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine, including Kyiv, as well as Russia’s own refusal to take necessary steps to end the war. Typical Russian lies,” he added.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense had described it as “a terrorist attack using long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) against the residence of the president of the Russian Federation.”
Since its full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, Ukraine has attempted to strike back at oil depots and other facilities it says fuel the Kremlin’s war machine.
While Russia has repeatedly said that it does not strike civilian targets, drones and missiles have regularly struck Ukrainian residential areas and civilian utility sites supplying the population with heat and light.
