Putin, Trump, Zelenskyy
The CIA has determined that Ukraine did not target President Putin of Russia or one of his residences in an attack this week, according to US officials, rebutting an assertion Putin made in a phone call to President Trump on Monday. CIA director John Ratcliffe briefed Trump on the finding, a person familiar with the matter said. Trump has not directly acknowledged the intelligence, but on Wednesday, he posted on social media a link to a New York Post editorial that blamed Putin for standing in the way of a peace deal with Ukraine and cast doubt on the veracity of his claim that he was the target of an attack. On Monday, Trump had said he was “very angry” about the purported attack when Putin told him about it. The CIA declined to comment, and the White House referred questions to Trump’s social media post. Russia had used the claim to threaten to harden its stance in negotiations as thorny issues already appear to be hampering talks to end the war. But it has not presented any clear-cut evidence of the purported drone attack, which it said was aimed at Putin’s residence in the Novgorod region. Instead, the finding by US intelligence officials, which was reported earlier by WSJ, aligns with Ukrainians, who denied the Russians’ allegations. In a post on social media, President Zelensky called the claim “a complete fabrication intended to justify additional attacks against Ukraine…” On Monday, even as Trump said he was angry about the purported attack, he conceded he had no independent confirmation and that it was “possible” it had not happened. “It’s a delicate period of time. This is not the right time. It’s one thing to be offensive because they’re offensive. It’s another thing to attack his house,” he said.
