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Escalating claims by Russia that Ukraine tried to hit a residence used by President Vladimir Putin with drones have been dismissed by a top military drone expert, who called the alleged attack “hard to fathom” and tactically implausible.
Cameron Chell’s comments came as Moscow doubled down on accusations Kyiv has flatly denied, with the drone industry leader arguing the alleged strike announced Monday runs counter to Ukraine’s drone tactics.
Chell, the CEO and co-founder of Draganfly, a drone manufacturer that supplies to the U.S. Department of Defense and allied militaries, including Ukraine, said Russia’s claims lack credibility.
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A Ukrainian soldier launches a reconnaissance drone in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine. (AP Photo/Andriy Andriyenko)
“What really makes things usually very signature about Ukraine is that they’re always incredibly clever about how they use drones,” Chell told Fox News Digital.
“They are clever from a cost perspective — let’s call it an efficiency perspective — but also very clever in their tactics,” he added.
“I find it hard to fathom that this drone attack even happened on Putin’s residence or that it was something that Ukraine orchestrated for a number of reasons,” Chell said.
“To get over the top of Putin’s residence, for one, the drones would not have been launched from a very long distance away,” he added.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a cabinet meeting, June 4, outside Moscow. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Chell’s comments came as Russia doubled down Tuesday on accusations that Ukraine attempted to strike a presidential palace in the Novgorod region using drones, allegedly to disrupt peace efforts.
Kyiv dismissed the allegation, with the timing also raising questions given the upbeat tone of a recent meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Florida.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed late Monday that 91 drones were intercepted en route to Putin’s residence on the shores of Lake Valdai.
His statement appeared to contradict earlier Defense Ministry tallies, which said 89 drones were shot down over eight regions, including 18 over Novgorod, later adding another 23.
Only after Lavrov spoke did the ministry allege that 49 drones intercepted over Bryansk, nearly 300 miles away, were also targeting Valdai.
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed late Monday that 91 drones were intercepted en route to Putin’s residence. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service telegram channel via AP)
Asked about wreckage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “a matter for our military,” while calling Zelenskyy’s denial and Western skepticism “completely insane.”
Peskov said Russia’s diplomatic stance would be toughened, and Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin vowed there could be “no forgiveness” for Zelenskyy.
Chell said the story simply does not add up. “To attack Putin’s residence, you need long-range, very fast-moving drones,” he said.
He added that for drones that small to reach such a site, they would have had to be launched from a much closer location, likely inside Russia itself.
“They would have to be within about 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] — or maybe, at most, 30 kilometers — of Putin’s residence,” Chell said.
“That facility where Putin lives would also be incredibly secure, and so to have a number of lower-cost, slower-moving drones coming in on that facility would be very un-Ukrainian,” Chell said.
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Satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows damage from a Ukrainian drone attack at the Belaya Air Base, June 4, in the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, Russia. (Maxar Technologies via AP)
“Ukraine also doesn’t announce when they’re going to show up,” he added.
Chell also noted that night operations would rule out GPS- or AI-based navigation due to jamming and visibility limits, making the launch of dozens of drones even less plausible.
“Apparently the thing was at night, so that’s very difficult for machine vision or AI mapping software,” he said. “So, you know, it definitely wasn’t using GPS, because it would have been jammed. There are just a bunch of things that don’t add up.”
Politically, Chell argued, Ukraine has nothing to gain. “They’re bold, but right in the middle of peace talks — when they need Trump on side — it makes no sense,” he said. “Ukraine is just politically too smart to have done that.”
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Zelenskyy on Monday also called the claim a complete fabrication, accusing Moscow of laying the groundwork for further attacks.
Lavrov warned of retaliation but said Russia would continue talks with Washington.
Trump also said he learned of the alleged attack directly from Putin and was “very angry about it.” Asked whether there was evidence, Trump replied, “We’ll find out.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Kremlin for comment.