Ukraine didn’t hit the Russian leader’s residence. Everyone except the US president can see through this nonsense
30 December 2025
It is increasingly obvious that Vladimir Putin is deploying every trick in the Kremlin playbook to avoid a peace deal he has no intention of signing.
While Donald Trump confidently proclaims that talks with Volodymyr Zelensky are “95 per cent done”, Moscow responds not with seriousness but with farce.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian leader’s long-serving foreign minister and lapdog, claims Ukraine attacked one of Putin’s many palaces with 91 drones on Sunday.
Inconveniently, this contradicts Russia’s own defence ministry, which reported detecting just 89 drones across the entirety of the Russian Federation that night.
Both ministries are well practised in deception and disinformation, but this is clumsy. These claims may satisfy an audience of one in Washington, but no serious analyst, including, one suspects, many inside the Kremlin, believes them.
Before examining Putin’s latest smokescreen, it is worth unpicking the so-called peace plan that Trump says is almost complete.
Central to it are security guarantees for Ukraine, which will not be for the half-century Zelensky understandably seeks, but a more modest 15 years.
There is even talk of Nato troops being based in Ukraine. From Moscow’s perspective, this is Nato membership by stealth. That is a red line for Putin and unlike the rhetorical red lines of past Western leaders, Putin’s are very real, very rigid, and very red.
Equally problematic is the proposal to cede territory in the Donbas. At first glance, this appears to meet one of Putin’s long-standing demands. In reality, it doesn’t.
Trump’s idea of transforming the Donbas into a demilitarised economic zone is about as palatable to the Kremlin as turning Gaza into a Mediterranean resort is to the Palestinians.
Once again, Trump’s transactional world-view crashes headlong into Putin’s ideological obsession with control, conquest and imperial restoration.
Crucially, all of this unfolds at a time when Russia’s military position, particularly in the Donbas, is deteriorating, with casualties are rising at an unprecedented rate.
Over the past ten months, losses have grown faster than at any point since the full-scale invasion began in 2022, according to BBC analysts.
As peace pressure mounted in 2025, Russian sources published 40 per cent more soldier obituaries than the previous year. Total Russian casualties now exceed 1.5 million and are increasing by roughly 1,000 every single day, surely unsustainable for much longer, even for an autocratic tyranny.
Having analysed this war since Putin launched his invasion on 24 February 2022, I say this with a heavy heart but with absolute clarity: Putin has no more interest in peace today than he did on that morning nearly four years ago.
The supposed drone attack on a palace he was nowhere near is an obvious fabrication and a convenient excuse to torpedo a deal in which Ukraine, the victim of aggression, has already been asked to concede far more than it ever should.
President Trump cannot seriously be this naive. Nor can he afford to be so beholden to Putin that he lets him wriggle off the hook yet again. If Trump truly is the master negotiator he claims to be, now is the moment to prove it. Should Putin continue to stall, deceive and obfuscate, the response must be strength, not indulgence.
The Kremlin understands power and fears it. If that means allowing Ukraine to unleash the Tomahawks Putin dreads so deeply, then so be it. And if a few destroyed Russian palaces concentrate minds in Moscow, Trump may yet find it is easier to strike a deal with a far more chastened Russian leader.
Comment from :
Hamish de Bretton-Gordon
AUTHOR
I’m afraid I see no indication that Putin is interested in peace at the moment? Please enlighten me? I see some of his fans are already commenting.
I’ll be answering comments 31 Dec 10-11am
Peter Purdy
I totally agree with the author. Putin has no interest whatsoever with peace brokered by the U.S. We should also come to understand that the U.S. is only marginally interested in peace. Their interest is the $ billions reward for rebuild & minerals.
My key point being, the only way to put pressure on Putin for peace is a European led hard line negotiation.
Before everyone starts shouting, yes, a European led hard line negotiation is not going to happen. It should have happened 4yrs ago at least but Europe, once again, laughed this off, failed to invest in military strength and said to itself, big brother U.S. will protect us.
Well guess what? The U.S. is fed up with European intransigence regarding military investment and the continent is now reaping what it sows.
It really does astonish me that all the finger pointing is at the U.S. and Donald Trump when, clearly, European leadership has directly created the mess the continent is in today.
Ergo, Putin is not interested in peace.
Mark Goode
“President Trump cannot seriously be this naive.”
Oh, yes he can. The man’s not all there.
Kremtroll scum :
Tom Ryves
As ever, no attempt to explain why putin did what he did. It is necessary to consider the exclusion from Europe of Russia over the last200 years, and what this means to Russian leadership.its not about empire building it’s about a perception of security. And the pivoting of nato under American leadership into an anti Russian block is fundamental to understanding Russian concerns. If we want long term peace and prosperity we must learn from the past.
Another filthy, stinking kremtroll:
raikmobs
Problem here is not Putin but the likes of Europe and NATO who want put weapons on his door step, I am sure if all the Warsaw Pact countries decided to join Russia the reverse would be true too. So stop interfering and wanting to corner Putin, you may even get peace, the comedian is taking all tax payers money and have a lavish lifestyle 🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️🤦🏻♂️
Simon Rowson
Reply to raikmobs –
Well done – that comment earned you one extra extra potato at the Vladivostok Propaganda Office.
с Новым Годом!
Simon Rowson
Trump will always blame Ukraine, whatever the evidence to the contrary.
Why?
1: He’s mentally abnormal.
2: He has a very low intellect.
3: He is a coward.
4: He is corrupt.
5: He is a Russian asset, controlled either by virtue of a carrot (promises of private shares in Ukraine’s mineral resources) or a stick (the long rumoured evidence of his sexual deviance in a Moscow hotel).
Ivan Donn
For Trump to admit that the alleged attack on one of Putin’s palaces was fake, would be to concede that Putin regards him as a gullible buffoon who can be easily manipulated. The tragic reality is that peace can only be achieved through defeat, not negotiation. Putin fears Tomahawks for that very reason, but he’s managed to neutralise that threat by leveraging a relationship which is entirely one-sided.
Sven Daman
“Trump cannot be this naïve.” Of course he can be. He has never been especially bright—anyone curious can read the biographies written by his niece, his nephew, and countless others—and he is now clearly in poor health, possibly with a rapidly progressing dementia. His “advisers” include Witkoff, a political clown; a vice-president steeped in the murk of the most outlandish conspiracy theories; a (not so bright either) son who readily believes the wildest fantasies about Ukraine; an eccentric son-in-law motivated almost entirely by profit; and a chorus of vapid middle age barbie- courtiers with puffed up lips obsessed with image over substance. By contrast, Putin is advised by seasoned former KGB operatives.
One more kremtroll cockroach :
Gerard Griffin
Putin wants a sustainable peace, not a temporary halt to the war. He has been asking for a new European security architecture for years and has been consistently ignored by NATO. He wants, essentially, a neutral Ukraine, similar to the arrangement with Austria after WW2. He won’t settle for less. Zekensky, on the other hand, knows that an end to the war means his loss of power. The EU wants the war to continue so that Russia can be further weakened, and also under the influence of the UK and EU military and arms industries, which have powerful lobbies. So does anyone except Trump really, really want the war to end?
A Snashall
Reply to Gerard Griffin
No, my Muscovite friend. Putin wants Imperial Russia back and will pursue whatever means to achieve it
Only the Orange Oaf in Washington is unable to grasp this.
J Collis
Skilled ex KGB operative, tyrannical leader of his a country that murders it’s own citizens, ignores international law for it’s economic benefit, illegally invades a free country and hoodwinks a naive, arrogant, pathological bullsh$&@$r of a president who does Putin’s bidding. How can this happen? What does Putin have on DT? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Sal Ben
Trump is not naive he is just not interested in Ukraine as a sovereign state. He likes and admires Putin for reasons which though currently inexplicable will one day be apparent. He does not understand or care about the politics of Eastern Europe and wants the war over and America and possibly himself or his family to recoup as much as possible from the skeleton of Ukraine so that he can look like a peacemaker and move on. What that says about his commitment to NATO is questionable but Europe should never count on Trump again.
Leanna Stoufer
Thank you for this article! It is infuriating to listen to the misinformation spouted by POTUS. Please continue shining light on the lies. And double-please help keep the situation in Ukraine in the news. As an individual, I (and millions of others like me) can only do so much.
JAMES PARGETER
Trump’s been funded by Putin and his cronies for 20 plus years. He’s not naive, he is in on it. It’s incredible that this can happen in the modern world. When will the US wake up to it?
Guy Frazier
Absolutely right Trump would have to be the most gullible human ever to believe the killer Putin who is the most devious, untrustworthy human(doubtful) ever .Trump would have to be blind or stupid….Surely he would have seen this coming ?All Putin care about is land grab .He makes Trump look like a plaything.
Mark Jones
Agreed Lavrov’s suggestion of a direct attack on Putin’s home is a maskirovka. A Russian military deception allowing a ramp off the peace plans of President Trump to maintain power within Russia.
Clearly the new strategy of Ukraine’s Navy without any major surface ships or submarines to target Russian ghost fleet oil tankers is hurting Putin. Without the funds generated by oil for millions of cannon fodder mercenaries from the Russian provinces and North Korea, a draft for those around Moscow and St Petersburg looms to continue Putin’s imperial conquest ever West. That would spell the beginning of the end for the current Don.
A collection of petrol stations run by various mafia bosses answering to one Don with the country of Russia attached requires constant funds and surveillance of the cannon fodder Russian citizens.
Unlikely a free, democratic Ukraine next door for even 10 years will enable the current mafia model. During those 10 years of peace the peasants in Russia will look next door with envy and wonder why they cannot have the same living standards without the oppressive mafia bosses.
The EU in Brussels has been Putin’s real ideological enemy with little green men since at least 2013 for the Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. It continues. Peace is at best a pause.
The current Russian mafia model requires ever more funds, assets and land for the bosses, not the citizens.
Perhaps the West is pursuing a ‘rope a dope ‘ strategy with Putin while building up steel porcupines in Europe. Time will tell especially next year as an oil glut drives prices below $50 a barrel. The Russian economy is largely a one trick energy pony. Tick. Tick.
Scott Driver
Trump can’t be THAT naive.
He’s playing along with Vlad, apparently to Ukraine’s detriment. We’ll have to see what the final peace deal looks like to properly evaluate.
Witless (Witkoff) clearly is in the tank for Vlad and Russia, having Russian roots himself and taking dictation from Vlad for Ukraine’s terms of surrender.
Thank God that Rubio and General Kellog are standing up for Ukraine and radically amended Vlad’s alleged “peace plan” presented to Trump by Witless.
Hamish is from an old British family that has served the military for centuries.
Like Ukraine, Britain is a diverse country. As in Hamish’s case; Huguenot/Scottish.
The Huguenots and the Jews have been among Britain’s best immigrants in terms of contribution relative to size of population.
Similarly Ukraine would not be Ukraine without the Greeks, Vangarians, Jews, Tatars and many others who fight today for the ZSU.
Simon Rowson
Trump will always blame Ukraine, whatever the evidence to the contrary.
Why?
1: He’s mentally abnormal.
2: He has a very low intellect.
3: He is a coward.
4: He is corrupt.
5: He is a Russian asset, controlled either by virtue of a carrot (promises of private shares in Ukraine’s mineral resources) or a stick (the long rumoured evidence of his sexual deviance in a Moscow hotel).
That comment is spot on. It explains the worst president in our history to the T. Anyone supporting this damned gangster is a depraved slob.
I think it is way more simpler than this, Jakes recent video opened my eyes a bit wider… it really is all hiding in plain view: Trumps brain thinks 25% appease MAGA, 25% retaliation, 50% bribe/biz deals internationally for personal gain. And orcville is ripe and desperate So simple, so clear now. Nothing to loose at this point, even if impreached, everything to this end is in place. Hes not so smart, he does what does, one trick pony, has been whole life.