Russia on Monday promised to retaliate against Ukraine after it said nearly 100 drones had targeted one of President Vladimir Putin's residences, likely throwing a wrench into President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the nearly four-year war.
"Such reckless actions will not go unanswered. The targets for retaliatory strikes and the timing of their implementation by the Russian armed forces have been determined," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said without offering details of the alleged attacks in the region of Novgorod.
Soon after, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the claims a lie aimed at jeopardizing negotiations. Russia would most likely use the alleged attack to launch strikes at government buildings in Kyiv, the capital, he added.
Trump later told reporters that he "just heard" about the attack alleged by Russia.
“That would be too bad. That would not be good,” he said ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Trump then said that Putin had informed him of the alleged attack during a phone call this morning.
“It’s one thing to be offensive,” he said. “It’s another thing to attack his house. It’s not the right time to do any of that.”
On Sunday, Trump was unusually optimistic about the peace process as he stood next to Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. The Kremlin on Monday agreed with Trump’s assessment that talks to end its war were in the final stage even as it stuck to its hard-line territorial demands.
After nearly three hours behind closed doors Sunday, Trump and Zelenskyy emerged to say they were “very close” to a deal and “90%” of the way there. But it’s those remaining “one or two very thorny issues” that will decide whether an agreement can be found between Kyiv and Moscow, Trump said.
Answering questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat Monday, Zelenskyy outlined one key area where there does seem to have been progress.
The Ukrainian leader said Trump was now offering Kyiv legally binding security guarantees that would last for 15 years, though he had asked for them to remain in place for up to half a century.
“I told him that we have been at war for almost 15 years, and therefore we would very much like the guarantees to be longer,” Zelenskyy said, referring to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and backing of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s east before a full-scale invasion in 2022.
He said Trump indicated he would consider longer guarantees, adding that they include how a peace deal would be monitored as well as the “presence” of partners.
But while Ukraine appeared positive about this offer to guarantee its security against future Russian aggression, few details were made public and it was unclear how Russia would view the proposal.
Zelenskyy also made clear that the fate of key territory remains unresolved.
Control over the eastern Donbas region and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant remain crucial sticking points in Trump's 20-point peace plan, a version of the original U.S. proposal that has been modified through weeks of intense diplomacy.
Ukraine still controls a chunk of Donbas and has vowed it won't give up that land, but Russia wants the whole region — a major demand that Putin has shown no desire to compromise on. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, is occupied by Russia but each side wants control of it in a deal.
American negotiators have previously floated the concept of establishing a “free economic zone” in Donbas, but Zelenskyy said Monday there is “no detailed concept” of how that would work yet, and that Ukrainian society would need to be consulted on any such agreement.
In fact, he said the whole 20-point peace plan should be put to a referendum in Ukraine, which he said would require a ceasefire of at least 60 days.
Moscow has ruled out agreeing to any temporary ceasefires, insisting that it was only interested in a permanent peace agreement — a position that Trump said Sunday he understood.
Before Trump met with Zelenskyy, he spoke on the phone with Putin for over two hours.
Trump said he believed the Russian president was serious about peace, but Zelenskyy was skeptical. “It is important that the actions and words of the Russian leader coincide,” he said Monday.
For its part the Kremlin agreed with Trump’s assessment that peace in Ukraine was closer.
But spokesman Dmitry Peskov doubled down on Moscow’s requirement that Ukraine withdraw fully from Donbas. Putin later received battlefield updates from his generals at a televised meeting and boasted his forces were in position to “liberate” the entire Donbas.
