HEADLINES

• Russia's defense ministry published a video of a downed drone that it said Ukraine launched at President Vladimir Putin's residence in northwest Russia this week. READ MORE BELOW

• Russia's claim that Ukraine recently attacked key governmental sites in Russia is a "deliberate distraction", European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas claimed.

• Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks targeting Moscow, parts of western Russia and Crimea, Russian authorities said. READ MORE BELOW

• Ukraine's Energy Ministry said that a Russian overnight air attack on the southern Odesa region had left more than 170,000 local consumers without power.

• Russia's top general Valery Gerasimov said its forces were pressing forward in northeastern Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin had ordered expansion of territory Moscow calls a buffer zone there in 2026, according to Russian news agencies.

• A Ukrainian drone attack injured two people and sparked a fire that was quickly extinguished at the Tuapse oil refinery, the operational headquarters of Russia's Krasnodar region said.

• Russia has released video of what it said was the deployment of its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system in close ally Belarus.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday Kyiv was discussing with Washington a possible presence of U.S. troops in Ukraine as part of security guarantees.

• Germany has dropped its investigation into Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov over alleged EU sanctions violations in exchange for 10 million euros ($12 million), prosecutors said Tuesday.

Russia publishes video of attempted attack on Putin residence

Russia's defense ministry published a video on Wednesday of a downed drone that it said Ukraine launched at President Vladimir Putin's residence in northwest Russia this week - a claim Kyiv has branded a "lie".

Moscow made the allegation shortly after Ukraine's leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy held talks with US President Donald Trump in Florida and Kyiv has called it a "fabrication" intended to "manipulate" the peace process.

The European Union also said the video was an attempt to "derail" peace efforts.

But Russia has called it a "terrorist attack" and a "personal attack" against Putin, saying it will toughen its negotiation stance in Ukraine talks.

The video, shot at night in the dark, showed a damaged drone lying in snow in a forested area. The ministry said the alleged attack was "targeted, carefully planned and carried out in stages".

Russia has not said where Putin was at the time, claiming the attack was launched on the night of December 28-29 at Putin's home in the Novgorod region. 

The defense ministry said the attack started around 7:00 pm on December 28 and was a "mass" drone launch at Putin's residence, but said the leader's home was not damaged.

It also published a video with a man it called a witness, saying he was a local villager from the settlement of Roshchino.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which documents the Ukraine-Russia conflict, said Tuesday it had not seen any "footage or reporting that typically follows Ukrainian deep strikes to corroborate the Kremlin's claims of Ukrainian strikes threatening Putin's residence in Novgorod Oblast". 

Ukraine launches drone attacks

Ukraine launched a series of drone attacks on Tuesday targeting Moscow, parts of western Russia and Crimea, injuring one person near the Russian capital, Russian authorities said.

Russia's air defense units destroyed a total of 27 Ukrainian drones in the three-hour period starting at 8 p.m. (1700 GMT), including three over the Moscow region, the Russian defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region, said on Telegram that 21 Ukrainian drones were downed during the day over the region. One civilian person was injured as a result of the attack.

Separately, a power outage hit a town outside Moscow after a technical fault at a regional power facility, RIA reported, citing power authorities.

The SHOT Telegram news channel, which has sources among Russia's security services, said about 100,000 residents were affected.

There was no immediate evidence the outage was linked to Ukraine.