The Attack on Putin's Residence Raises Major Questions about Proposed US Security Guarantees
Vladimir Putin’s residence in Novgorod, known as Dolgiye Borody, also known as Valdai and Uzhin, was attacked by waves of drones on December 29th. We know this from an official statement from Sergey Lavrov, and from President Trump who was informed by Putin himself in a telephone call. The Russian Defense Ministry subsequently also released a report after a Duma deputy provided preliminary details of the attack.
The attack raises major questions about proposed US security guarantees for Ukraine as part of some sort of deal on settling the Ukraine war.
The Ukrainians said the attack never happened and much of the western press reflected Ukraine’s position. Now hard evidence is emerging that the Russian claims have merit.
According to official Russian statements and details circulated by state-aligned channels (similar to the reporting of Duma Deputy Alexander Khinshtein), the drones were reportedly intercepted at the following locations in the Novgorod Region: the Lake Valdai area around Dolgiye Borody; Yashcherovo, the intercept point west of the residence; Roschino, a forested area near the village where debris has been found; and Valday town where debris is said to have fallen.
The main attack drone used by Ukraine was the UJ-26 Beaver (Bober). This loitering munition has a distinctive canard layout with sleek fuselage and inverted tail. The type was introduced in 2023 and has reportedly entered mass production. Range is in the order of 1,000 km (620 miles) and payload is reported as 20 kg (44 lbs). This type was previously used to attack Moscow and other targets in Russia.
The Russians also claim to have found a crashed modified Chaklun long range strike drone. This drone is manufactured in Ukraine and is powered by a DLE111 Chinese-made engine. One of these drones in January, 2025 struck a Smolensk aviation plant that was remodeling older Su-25 aircraft.
The Russians have released a map showing the flight paths of the Ukrainian UAVs and information on the attack.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense report, Russian air defenses shot down 49 drones above the Bryansk Region, one above Smolensk Region and another 41 above the Novgorod Region as they approached Putin’s residence.
The Dolgiye Borody residence is surrounded by air defenses, some of them mounted on towers above the surrounding forest trees. There are at least 12 improved versions of the Pantsir S1 in the area, which have been optimized for anti-drone warfare. Nearby there also is an S-400 air defense installation. In addition the region is blanketed by heavy electronic warfare units, among them jammers and spoofers including the Krasukha-4 and Pole-21E, an electronic RF jammer. These systems are designed to jam GPS signals and disrupt the communication links between drones and their operators. Quite possibly the Ukrainian drones were equipped with Starlink mini terminals or were using a mother drone with Starlink linked to the attack drones. The Russians also are using mini Starlink for some drones, bought on the black market. Starlink is very difficult to jam or spoof.
The Putin residence is a very secure facility. Putin accesses it by a secret rail link from Moscow and a helicopter connection at the end. The train is specially armored and the train cars undercarriage are reinforced with extra road wheels to carry the added weight.
There are other highly secure residences, including Novo-Ogaryovo (Moscow), Bocharov Ruchey (Sochi) and Dvorets Putina, an Italianate palace complex located on the Black Sea coast near Gelendzhik, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
It isn’t known if Putin was at the Dolgiye Borody residence at the time of the attack. Some say he was in Moscow and stayed away from Dolgiye Borody because of the threat of drone or missile attacks from the sea.
On May 3, 2023, two Ukrainian drones exploded over the Senate Palace within the Kremlin complex in Moscow. The Senate Palace is the working residence for Putin. The attack marked the first time that the Kremlin was targeted since World War 2.
Some think that with Zelensky arriving in Mar-a-Lago he would not have authorized an attack on Putin’s residence, especially since he was seeking to obtain American security guarantees for Ukraine. For example, Larry Johnson argues this was an unauthorized Ukrainian intelligence operation, possibly linked to British intelligence, to derail Zelensky leading to his ouster as President. It is fairly well known that the British, especially MI-6, Britain’s overseas secret intelligence service, is backing Valeri Zaluzhny to replace Zelensky.
In the Trump-Zelensky meeting both sides, according to Zelensky, discussed US security guarantees for Ukraine. Allegedly, Trump offered a 15 year guarantee which Zelensky says would include US troops in Ukraine. Zelensky told reporters “we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the ‘coalition of the willing.’ We would like this.”
It is obvious that the attack on Putin’s residence was a provocation, whether it took place with Zelensky’s knowledge or not. It raises a profound question of why the US would agree to give any security guarantee to Ukraine, and challenges the wisdom of stationing American soldiers in Ukraine. If, as Zelensky implies, such guarantees are linked to a “coalition of the willing” which no doubt includes Germany, France and the UK, we get a “streamlined NATO” where there is no veto power, as troublemakers like Hungary are excluded.
One consequence: an offer of a security guarantee to Ukraine is worse than putting Ukraine in NATO.
“One consequence: an offer of a security guarantee to Ukraine is worse than putting Ukraine in NATO.”
Great article Stephen, your last comment summing up perfectly the U.S and Western 50 States coalition including my own government, New Zealand’s massive contribution and inclusion meeting monthly at Ramstein and at every called jaw boning session.
Your end comment proves once again that the monster created to buttress U.S Hubris and to ensure continuance of U.S economic hegemony has turned in on itself, in the process threatening to consume its creator, this is reminiscent we know of Israel, of ISIS both glaring examples of the “ best and smartest in the room” U.S creators in acts of unmitigated and unbridled enthusiasm created, funded, trained, enabled and abided by Israel and ISIS, do8ng so with results whereby both having gone rogue, Israel with AIPAC and Mossad together ISIS ex the genuine terrorist acts undertaken by foot soldiers who splintered and also went rogue against the leadership meant to contain such extremes of behaviour.
The above but just two examples of the resulting chaos together attendant costs squandered having to deal with that the U.S gestated and ultimately birthed, ditto now the Azov NAZI encouraged construct that have come to dominate the latest U.S project by going completely rogue, likely playing their masters as they, Azov sought, found and sold out to other puppet masters, MI6 being a case in point, doing so such that the U.S no longer controls or is able to control or contain and not for the first time in the nations warmongering, shit stirring terrorist history, their creation turning on them… the boogie man or ally has again gone rogue.
Makes one truly wonder about just when the U.S will ever learn, the same occurred those in Vietnam incessantly supported Vietnam, Afghanistan Kharzai and the other War lords, Saddam Hussein albeit it was the U.S who turned upon their once ally used as a proxy to “whack” Iran in a fit of U.S pique against Iran wherein the U.S encouraged, armed, supported Saddam and Iraq in the decade+ long war against Iran, all because the Iranians finally woke up and threw out, deposing the U.S installed Shah Pahlavi, a brutal dictator and true champion of democracy and human rights, who embodied everything sacrosanct and embraced the U.S constitution… NOT!
The Shah was a fascist tyrant, a brutal dictator whose leadership and presiding over Iran led to a religious uprising ousting him, causing him to flee in the late 1970’s freeing finally the Iranians, Iran a nation that has been targeted many times as it still is today by the U.S and its banking Interests, the most recent kinetic conflagrations being as with the most recent iterations undertaken at the behest of the fascist Theodor Herzl Zionist state of Israel, a state that has been masterminded and supported unconditionally, financially, militarily by the U.S, to the point many of the billions “granted” annually to the genocidal fascist State of Israel presided over by ICC Indicted War Criminals called to be arrested and tried for crimes of genocide and against humanity, used in a copycat play of frustrated closet homo J Edgar Hoover, a deviate who led for decades the FBI, doing so by collating files the result of spying on powerful individuals in the U.S irrespective of wealth, position, regardless of vocation, military, political, legal, Academia, Corporate, it mattered not, they were all spied on, files collated and built then used against them to threaten, intimidate, cajole, blackmail, the deviate Hoover having his goons even spy on family and friends of his targets al in a bid to gain leverage against them, the frustrated homo getting the thrill, literally himself “off” reading and using the salacious details gathered, enter Fascist Zionist Israel a nation following Theodore Herzl ideology that cosied up we know to Hitler and his National Socialists in Germany ( NAZIS) financing and supporting his rise to power, encouraging, counselling him and his staff to undertake the pogrom against adherents to the Abramic Faith, especially those hailing from the east, Russia, Latvia, Romania, Poland especially were targeted and considered sub human, now that’s a saying that has a common ring to it, seems it’s been used dusted off and used again to malign present targets and those targeted now since the days of British Palestine, the true semites, Palestinians whose houses, businesses, lands and property have been systemically stolen, pillaged and plundered the Palestinian owners in many cases murdered, tortured and brutalised in the most heinous and brutal manner by Zionists ostensibly settling and returning to a land they claim, a land they have no connection unto, DNA testing illegal in Israel, many Zionists themselves self identify as having Ashkenazi or Khazarian ancestry, an ancestral tie to Eastern Europe, specifically Ukraine.
It’s an interesting history, as is the read of the aforementioned psychotic, for upon reading the manifesto written one cannot help but feel you have read the ramblings of an absolute deluded, insane psychopath, such is the impact of Herzl’s work, a work zealously followed by modern Zionists, those self proclaiming a fielty to the Genocidal, Murderous, Terrorist blackmailing State of Israel, who as I began to note above, reincarnated the doctrine of frustrated deviate Hoover, perfecting it, as they used people like Epstein to gather filth, the dirt on so many deploying children, male and female to entrap many targeted as being likely influential that would be of use to the State of Israel ex blackmail lest the salacious secrets gathered find their way into the public domain, an age old playbook, made possible U.S grants in the billions poured into that Genocide, Apartheid shithole… even better than that in an act of true brazenness one undoubtedly that created much mirth amongst the Zionist leadership, they used American dollars to bribe ex AIPAC in the form of campaign contributions made to U.S political campaigns and those seeking public office (Judges etc) widening the drag net to make gifts of U.S taxpayers funds sent the genocidal progious “lawn mowing” Mid East State, to gain and buy influence by making gifts of U.S Grant monies to institutions and bodies such as U.S Tertiary Institutions, Research Centres, any place identified that one day might benefit the purveyors of sodomy, torture of incarcerated helpless untried and sentenced prisoners taken hostage by the thousands and held without trial, raped including by canines all antithetical to religion observed those unfortunate to be so assaulted and abused by canines, yet delighting as we know the world’s most moral army, the IDF did in video essays they posted themselves on Tik Tok, now I understand why Benjamin Mileikowski the Israel P.M salivates over buying Tik Tok, in order they can delete all such material… destroying the self loaded record of abuse by his charges of thier hapless prisoners … a typical ploy, destroy the evidence, obfuscate and lie when asked to produce the same, thankfully the same has been used those prosecuting on behalf of foreign governments the Zionists acts of genocide and illegalities against human rights… violations of international laws…
As I opined … seems the U.S never learns, always repeating its mistakes creating monsters that go rogue just as in Ukraine, the difference this time the actions of their attack dog just might result their being totally incinerated, the price to pay when foolishly taking on the largest nuclear armed state on the planet, guess maybe as the nukes are being sent, finally the smartest and brightest in the room might just get it… they f..ked it right up, bought it upon themselves… just saying
Kia Kaha (stay strong) from New Zealand
Thanks for the info.
Zelensky did say a few days ago in a major address that he wanted Putin to "perish."
The Ukrainians have made multiple attempts to hit Putin previously. I suppose it *is* possible that Zelensky was irritated by it happening while he was in the U.S. for a meeting with Trump. It is also possible that Z. wanted it to happen while there to derail any talk about a real peace deal and focus discussion on him and his capabilities instead.