Overview
- At a 31 December briefing, Russia’s Defense Ministry said 91 long‑range drones launched from Sumy and Chernihiv on the night of 28–29 December were intercepted en route to the presidential residence in Novgorod region.
- Officials presented footage of debris and a minute‑by‑minute shoot‑down timeline across Bryansk, Smolensk and Novgorod, asserting there were no casualties or damage to the residence.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the allegation, calling it a fake and framing it as an attempt to disrupt ongoing negotiations.
- The Institute for the Study of War and local reporting highlighted the absence of typical open‑source signatures—such as PVO launch videos, explosions, alerts or local accounts—that usually accompany large cross‑border strikes.
- Separately, regional authorities reported continued UAV attacks: Belgorod region recorded 60+ drones with at least three civilians killed and multiple injuries, while Russian strikes injured civilians, including children, in Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk and damaged a residential building in Ukraine’s Kyiv region.