Overview
- Russia says it gave decrypted navigation data and a drone component to a U.S. military attaché in Moscow, releasing video of GRU chief Igor Kostyukov asserting a Dec. 29 strike was aimed at a Putin residence in the Novgorod region.
- U.S. officials were told by the CIA that the drones did not target the residence and instead were aimed at a military site in the same region, and President Donald Trump was briefed on that assessment.
- Ukraine denies striking Putin or civilian sites and calls the Russian materials fabricated, while Moscow’s occupation authorities in Kherson accuse Kyiv of a New Year’s drone attack that killed about 24 people, a claim not independently verified.
- Ukraine’s General Staff reports heavy Russian losses in a single day and says its forces hit a Tor‑M2 air-defense system, a drone depot in Donetsk, and energy facilities in Krasnodar, Kaluga and Tatarstan, as Russia launched large-scale drone barrages.
- Ukraine’s military intelligence says it staged the death of militia leader Denis Kapustin and seized a $500,000 Russian bounty, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says security‑guarantee talks with international advisers are set for early January in Kyiv.