Trump: Home Not Target        01/05 07:05

   

   ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) -- President Donald Trump on Sunday told reporters 
that U.S. officials have determined that Ukraine did not target a residence 
belonging to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a drone attack last week, 
disputing Kremlin claims that Trump had initially greeted with deep concern.

   Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last week said Ukraine launched a 
wave of drones at Putin's state residence in the northwestern Novgorod region 
that the Russian defense systems were able to defeat. Lavrov also criticized 
Kyiv for launching the attack at a moment of intensive negotiations to end the 
war.

   The allegation came just a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 
had traveled to Florida for talks with Trump on the U.S. administration's 
still-evolving 20-point plan aimed at ending the war. Zelenskyy quickly denied 
the Kremlin allegation.

   Trump said that "something happened nearby" Putin's residence but that 
Americans officials didn't find the Russian president's residence was targeted.

   "I don't believe that strike happened," Trump told reporters as he traveled 
back to Washington on Sunday after spending two weeks at his home in Florida. 
"We don't believe that happened, now that we've been able to check."

   Trump addressed the U.S. determination after European officials argued that 
the Russian claim was nothing more than an effort by Moscow to undermine the 
peace effort.

   But Trump, at least initially, had appeared to take the Russian allegations 
at face value. He told reporters last Monday that Putin had also raised the 
matter during a phone he had with the Russian leader earlier that day. And 
Trump said he was "very angry" about the accusation.

   By Wednesday, Trump appeared to be downplaying the Russian claim. He posted 
a link to a New York Post editorial on his social media platform that raised 
doubt about the Russian allegation. The editorial lambasted Putin for choosing 
"lies, hatred, and death" at a moment that Trump has claimed is "closer than 
ever before" to moving the two sides to a deal to end the war.

   The U.S. president has struggled to fulfill a pledge to quickly end the war 
in Ukraine and has shown irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin as he tried 
to mediate an end to a conflict he boasted on the campaign trail that he could 
end in one day.

   Both Trump and Zelenskyy said last week they made progress in their talks at 
Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

   But Putin has shown little interest in ending the war until all of Russia's 
objectives are met, including winning control of all Ukrainian territory in the 
key industrial Donbas region and imposing severe restrictions on the size of 
Ukraine's post-war military and the type of weaponry it can possess.