Russia-Ukraine peace talks thrown into further doubt as Moscow makes new accusations

Russia accused Ukraine on Monday of trying to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence in northern Russia, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida and said they had made progress toward a deal to end the war. Kyiv dismissed Moscow's allegations as baseless and said they were designed to undermine peace talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that Ukraine had tried to attack President Vladimir Putin's residence in northern Russia and so Moscow's negotiating position would be reviewed. But Ukraine said it was a lie.

Russia said Ukraine attacked the presidential residence in the Novgorod region overnight with 91 long-range drones, which were all destroyed by Russian air defences. No one was injured and there was no damage, Lavrov said.

"Such reckless actions will not go unanswered," Lavrov said, adding that the attack amounted to "state terrorism."

Lavrov noted that the attack took place during negotiations about a possible peace deal with Ukraine and that while Russia would not leave the negotiations, Moscow's position will be reviewed.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the accusation a lie, adding that Moscow was preparing the grounds to strike government buildings in Kyiv.

It was not immediately clear if Putin was in the Dolgiye Borody — or Long Beards — residence, which has also been used in the past by Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev and Boris Yeltsin.

Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin's foreign policy aide, said that Putin and Trump had spoken on Monday, and that Putin had been briefed by Trump and his senior advisers about Washington's negotiations with Ukraine.

Trump had been shocked when Putin told him that Ukraine had attacked a presidential residence in Novgorod, Ushakov said.

Trump told reporters outside his Mar-a-Lago club after the call that he had no further information about the alleged attack.

"It's one thing to be offensive," Trump said. "It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that. And I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it."

Trump said the conversation with Putin was productive.

"We have a couple of issues that we're going to get resolved, hopefully, and if we get them resolved, you're going to have peace," Trump said.

U.S. offering security guarantees

Earlier Monday, Zelenskyy said that the United States was offering Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years as part of a proposed peace plan, though he said he would prefer an American commitment of up to 50 years to deter Russia from further attempts to seize its neighbour's land by force.

Trump hosted Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and insisted that Ukraine and Russia are "closer than ever before" to a peace settlement.

Negotiators are still searching for a breakthrough on key issues, however, including whose forces will be withdraw from where and the fate of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 biggest in the world.

Trump noted that the monthslong U.S.-led negotiations could still collapse.

"Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end," Zelenskyy told reporters in voice messages responding to questions sent via a WhatsApp chat.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia since 2014, when it illegally annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists took up arms in the Donbas, a vital industrial region in eastern Ukraine.

Details of the security guarantees have not become public, but Zelenskyy said Monday that they include how a peace deal would be monitored, as well as the "presence" of partners. He didn't elaborate, but Russia has said it won't accept the deployment of troops from NATO countries in Ukraine.

As indications suggest, negotiations could come to a head in January, before the fourth anniversary of Russia's full-blown invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Putin on Monday claimed that Russian troops are advancing in the eastern Donetsk region of Ukraine and are also pressing their offensive in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Putin has sought to portray himself as negotiating from a position of strength as Ukrainian forces strain to keep back the bigger Russian army.

He also emphasized at a meeting with senior military officers the need to create military buffer zones along the Russian border.

"This is a very important task as it ensures the security of Russia's border regions," he said.

In a televised meeting with Putin and other top military officials, Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of Russia's General Staff, said that Russian forces in 2025 had captured 6,460 square kilometres of territory in Ukraine, including 334 villages.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

• Russia delivers 'massive strike' on Kyiv ahead of Zelenskyy-Trump peace talks in Florida

Trump said he would consider extending U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine beyond 15 years, according to Zelenskyy. The guarantees would be approved by the U.S. Congress, as well as by parliaments in other countries involved in overseeing any settlement, he said.

Zelenskyy said he wants the 20-point peace plan under discussion to be approved by Ukrainians in a national referendum.

However, holding a ballot requires a ceasefire of at least 60 days, and Moscow has shown no willingness for a truce without a full settlement.