Moscow doubled down Wednesday on its claims that a Ukrainian drone had targeted President Vladimir Putin’s residence, even as Kyiv denied the allegations and announced fresh strikes on Russian fuel infrastructure on New Year’s Eve.

The Kremlin insisted that Ukrainian drones had attempted to strike Putin’s residence on the shores of Lake Valdai between Moscow and St. Petersburg late Monday.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry released video footage purportedly showing a downed drone lying in the snow in a forested area at night. The ministry said the footage depicted an attempt “to strike an aircraft-type UAV on the territory of a protected facility,” but provided no evidence confirming the incident had occurred near Putin’s residence.

POLITICO was not able to verify the details of the video.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed on Monday that the alleged attack had involved more than 90 long-range drones and warned that Moscow’s position in U.S.-led peace talks would harden as a result.

Ukraine flatly rejected the claim, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy calling it “another lie from the Russian Federation” and accusing Moscow of manufacturing a provocation to derail diplomatic momentum. Residents of the nearby town of Valdai told Russian independent media Mozhem Obyasnit that they had heard no explosions or signs of an overnight attack.

Ukraine’s Foreign Intelligence Service had previously warned that Moscow was preparing a disinformation operation aimed at derailing Zelenskyy’s progress in talks with U.S. President Donald Trump by blaming Ukraine for an alleged attack on Putin’s residence while presenting no credible evidence.

Western officials also expressed skepticism. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas accused Moscow of spreading “unfounded claims,” describing the alleged attack as a “deliberate distraction” by which “Moscow aims to derail real progress towards peace by Ukraine and its Western partners.”

U.S. officials struck a cautious note, with Washington’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, saying on Tuesday it was unclear whether the incident had occurred. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that he was unhappy about the reports after speaking with Putin, but acknowledged that their veracity had yet to be established.

While Russia called attention to the alleged threat to its president, Ukraine confirmed it had carried out a long-range strike deep inside Russian territory.

In the early hours of Wednesday, drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine’s Alpha Special Operations Center struck the Temp oil depot in the city of Rybinsk, in Russia’s northwestern Yaroslavl region, according to Ukrainian officials. The facility is part of Rosrezerv, Russia’s state material reserves system, and is designed to store large volumes of fuel.

Footage released by Ukraine’s SBU counter-intelligence service showed a large fire engulfing the depot following the strike. Rybinsk is a major transit and logistics hub, and Temp plays a key role in storing and distributing oil products in northwestern Russia.

“The SBU continues to cut off the supply chains of Russian oil products with surgical precision, both abroad and for the troops attacking Ukraine,” an SBU official told POLITICO. “This systematic work will continue in 2026.”