Multiple reasons behind Kremlin's fake attack on Putin's residence — analyst

Volodymyr Horbach, Executive Director of the Institute for the Transformation of Northern Eurasia, spoke about this on Espreso TV.

"There are several reasons why the Kremlin staged an imitation attack on Putin's residence. The first and most important is that they need to shift responsibility onto someone else for derailing the negotiations and declare that Ukraine is to blame for this. The Kremlin is also trying to maintain strategic initiative and reach a new level of escalation. In any unclear situation, the Russians resort to escalation," Horbach explained.

The analyst believes that one of the reasons for Russia's overt sabotage of the negotiation process is Putin's fear of meeting with President Zelenskyy.

"Another important point why the situation was not favorable for the Kremlin. In the negotiation process, which had been dragging on for quite a long time, Ukrainian and European sides participated. It looked like at the moment of Zelenskyy's visit to Trump, the American side was agreeing to everything, and therefore a certain unified approach to negotiations from the West was being formed. In particular, a unified approach to ending the war. And this approach should have been presented to the Russians. This is something that, of course, strategically does not suit the Russian side. They started the war against Ukraine not so that Kyiv would form a unified position with the West. Therefore, they tried to destroy this consensus. The third reason is that the negotiation process had gone so far that many points had already been agreed upon, and the Russians were about to receive it. After this, the sides would need to meet. Zelenskyy said this. This is what frightened the Russian dictator. He is afraid of a meeting with Zelenskyy mediated by Trump," he added.

What preceded this

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that on the night of December 28-29, Ukraine allegedly attacked Vladimir Putin's residence in the Novgorod region with 91 strike drones.

On the same day, December 29, U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone conversation with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin regarding Ukraine.

Trump stated that he had heard about the alleged attack by Ukrainian UAVs on the Russian dictator's residence, but at the same time he "knows nothing."

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha stated: Russia will not provide convincing evidence regarding its claims about the alleged Ukrainian attack on Putin's residence, because it did not happen. In particular, Pakistan called the "attack" "despicable." China also commented on the situation.