National Defense

Zelenskyy Letter Ignites New Questions About CIA’s Putin Assassination Narrative

(Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

An open letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Russian President Vladimir Putin raises questions about disputed reports that the CIA worked together with Ukraine to assassinate Putin at his family residence.

Zelenskyy’s letter does not openly claim responsibility for the alleged swarm of over 90 drones launched at Putin’s home in December, but it alluded to the “security of your residence in Valdai” on June 4. The letter came out shortly before a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks around the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Saturday, according to St. Petersburg Gov. Aleksandr Beglov’s verified Telegram account.

A CIA assessment determined that the strike on Putin’s home never took place, The Wall Street Journal reported on Dec. 31, 2025.

“Ukraine categorically rejects claims that its forces launched a drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai,” Halyna Yusypiuk, a spokeswoman for the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington, told the DCNF. “Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, have dismissed these allegations as a complete fabrication intended to undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts and provide a pretext for further Russian escalation.”

The CIA didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

‘Intimately Involved’

Russian officials speculated that the highly disputed December attack could have come with CIA assistance.

“I said right away that it’s impossible [to conduct the strike on Putin’s home] without support from intelligence services — first and foremost the CIA,” Russian news agency Puamo reported, citing Aleksei Chepa, deputy chair of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs.

There is also some speculation from journalists and military analysts that the CIA was indirectly involved in the alleged strikes on Putin’s home by providing targeting data.

“The CIA has been heavily, intimately involved,” geopolitical analyst Brandon Weichert told the DCNF. “U.S. intelligence, not just CIA, but U.S. intelligence services have been heavily, intimately involved with the targeting intelligence of these strikes within Russia.”

“CIA / Ukraine Likely Tried to Kill Putin at Home with his Family,” a headline from former Moscow Times editor Matt Bivens’ personal Substack reads.

The alleged drone swarm directed at Putin’s home in Valdai reportedly took place on Dec. 29, 2025, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a press release.

“You know who told me about it? President Putin told me about it. Early in the morning he said he was attacked. That’s no good. It’s no good,” President Donald Trump said to reporters on Dec. 29, 2025, when he was asked about “the strike — the alleged strike on Putin’s residence.”

Two days after this statement, Trump reposted a New York Post editorial board op-ed alluding that the attack was based on “lies” in a post on Truth Social.

The White House, the Russian Embassy in Washington and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence also did not respond to a request for comment.

It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working. Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region – to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base… pic.twitter.com/IkdN8UE3QD

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 6, 2026

Shortly after Zelenskyy’s open letter was released, the strikes on St. Petersburg took place.

“St. Petersburg came under a large-scale attack by military drones,” Beglov posted on Telegram on Saturday. Four people were injured in the attack, according to Russian state-backed news agency TASS.

Three tanks of petroleum products caught fire after the attack, Ukraine’s security service said in a Telegram post. The Ukrainian drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region for the attack, Zelenskyy said in an X post.

“We often hear that you are comfortable with this war,” the letter states. “Of course, not in those cases when it comes to the security of your residence in Valdai or your parade in Moscow. Your own life is valuable to you.” Valdai is located halfway between St. Petersburg and Moscow in Northwest Russia.

Although the CIA assessment denied the strikes, the agency has received the “green light to enable pinpoint strikes deep inside Russia itself,” according to a report from The New York Times on March 29, 2025.

“They already tried to whack him [Putin] in last May of 2025,” Weichert told the DCNF. “He was boarding a helicopter, and a drone … missed his helicopter by inches.”

Putin’s presidential helicopter was at the “epicenter” of a Ukrainian drone attack on May 20, TASS reported.

The alleged attacks took place during “intensive talks to settle the Ukrainian conflict between Russia and the US,” Lavrov said in the press release. “Despite this attack, we have no intention to withdraw from the negotiations with the US.”

The Empire Strikes Back

Russian military promised to retaliate against the Ukrainian armed forces for the alleged attack on Putin’s home in the press release. Eleven days later, the Russians launched an Oreshnik hypersonic missile at critical infrastructure in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video on its verified Telegram channel depicting Ukrainian drones that were allegedly downed during the attack on Putin’s home.

Ukrainian officials said the footage was “laughable,” and Ukraine is “absolutely confident that no such attack took place,” Reuters reported, citing Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi.

“Ukraine maintains close cooperation with the United States on defense and intelligence matters directly related to military assistance, battlefield awareness, and Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s ongoing aggression,” Yusypiuk told the DCNF. “Any suggestions that such cooperation is connected to or supports the false allegations regarding an attack on the Valdai residence are entirely unfounded.”

“The Embassy considers these accusations part of a broader pattern of Russian disinformation aimed at diverting attention from its war of aggression against Ukraine and complicating efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace,” Yusypiuk told the DCNF.

Putin may be one of the key factors preventing a wider escalation of the war, Weichert told the DCNF.

“If they are successful in taking Putin out, I believe the next group that takes power in Russia, it’ll be basically a full-blown war with the United States,” Weichert told the DCNF. “I think that the Russians are preparing to unleash the mother of all strikes upon the Ukrainians … Putin is not the crazy man in the Russian system, Putin is actually the guy who’s the least hardline of the ruling class.”

Drones have been used extensively by both sides in the Russo-Ukrainian War and frequently fall off target. Russian drones have entered Poland and Romania, while Ukrainian drones have entered and hit Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Russian officials provided specific drone factories they could hit in retaliation for these strikes in a Telegram post on April 15.

“The Russians are seriously considering targeting this massive drone facility in Berlin; they’re talking about possibly hitting parts of Poland, of Latvia, they’ve got a list of NATO countries,” Weichert told the DCNF, referencing the Telegram post.