Russia says its negotiating stance on Ukraine will toughen after accusing Kyiv of attack

MOSCOW/KYIV, Dec 30 (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday its position would toughen in talks on ending the war in Ukraine after accusing Kyiv of attacking a Russian presidential residence, an allegation that Kyiv said was baseless and intended to prolong the conflict.

Kyiv has said Russia’s accusations are “lies” aimed at justifying more attacks on Ukraine, and its foreign minister said on Tuesday that Russia had not provided any evidence “because there’s none”. 

Russia said on Monday Kyiv had attacked a presidential residence in the Novgorod region with 91 long-range attack drones. It said it would retaliate and review its negotiating stance but would not quit talks on a possible peace deal.

“This terrorist action is aimed at collapsing the negotiation process,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. “The diplomatic consequence will be to toughen the negotiating position of the Russian Federation.”

He said the military knew when and how to respond. 

A tougher negotiating stance would complicate efforts led by U.S. President Donald Trump to end the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two.

Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022, controls just under a fifth of its neighbour’s territory and says its troops are advancing.

UKRAINE DENIES THERE WAS AN ATTACK  

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday that Russia had not provided any plausible evidence of its accusations. 

“And they won’t. Because there’s none. No such attack happened,” Sybiha said on X.

He said Kyiv was disappointed by statements by the United Arab Emirates, India and Pakistan expressing concern over what he said was an attack that never happened. 

“Russia has a long record of false claims — it’s their signature tactic,” Sybiha said.

Asked by reporters whether Russia had physical evidence of the drone attack, Peskov said air defences shot the drones down but that the question of wreckage was for the defence ministry. 

No evidence has been provided by Russia besides a defence ministry statement which said 91 drones had been shot down while heading for the residency, which is about 360 km (225 miles) north of Moscow.

The defence ministry said 49 were shot down over Bryansk region, which is 450 km from Valdai, one over Smolensk region, and 41 over the heavily forested Novgorod region. 

The defence ministry had not mentioned any attack on the residence in its earlier reports of military action. The governor of Novgorod, Alexander Dronov, had said air defence and fighter jets were shooting down Ukrainian drones.

Peskov said many Western media outlets were playing along with Kyiv’s denial.

“We see that Zelenskiy himself is trying to deny this, and many Western media outlets, playing along with the Kyiv regime, are starting to spread the theme that this did not happen,” Peskov said. “This is a completely insane assertion.”

Peskov declined to say where Putin was at the time of the attack, saying that in light of recent events such details should not be in the public domain.

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, Editing by Andrew Osborn and Timothy Heritage)