"Attack" on Putin's residence: now Trump says he doesn't know if it's true
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during the summit in Alaska on August 15 (Photo: EPA)

President of the United States Donald Trump said he did not know whether there was a "Ukrainian attack" on the residence of the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin in Valdai. The American leader told about this in an interview with to The New York Times on January 7.

The journalist asked Trump if he still trusted Putin after the incident when he claimed that Ukraine had allegedly fired a missile at his house (the Russian side claimed a drone "attack". – Ed.), but American intelligence indicates that this did not happen.

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In response, the US president recounted how on the day of the interview, Russian ships "left awfully quickly" while the US was detaining the "shadow" tanker Bella 1, which was sailing from Venezuela under the Russian flag.

The politician was asked why the Russian dictator did not tell him the truth about the "attack" on his residence.

"I don’t know. I don’t know if it was the truth or not. He did tell me that his home was attacked [...] which I would not have been happy about," Trump replied.

He did not give any other details, as the topic was interrupted by a phone call.

It should be noted that on January 5, US president claimed that he did not believe in a "Ukrainian attack" on Putin's residence.

  • On December 29, Kremlin top diplomat Lavrov said that Ukrainian drones allegedly tried to attack Putin's residence in Valdai. President Zelensky called his words a lie.
  • On the same day, Trump said that Putin told him about the alleged attack on his residence. The US president said that "this is not good".
  • The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine stated that Russia conducts an information operation to disrupt the agreements reached between the heads of state of Ukraine and the US.
  • On January 9 the Russian Defense Ministry used a fictitious "attack" on Valdai as a "pretext" for an "Oreshnik" missile strike in the Lviv region the day before.