Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has “strongly condemned the attempted attack” on the residence of Vladimir Putin, the press service of the Uzbek president said following a phone call with the Russian president on December 30.
“At the beginning of the conversation, the Head of our state strongly condemned the attempted attack on the residence of the President of Russia in the Novgorod region. It was emphasized that such acts pose a threat to stability and security, including in the context of efforts to achieve long-term peace,” the statement from Mirziyoyev’s press service said.
The official information released by Tashkent makes no mention of Ukraine, drones, or any qualification of the incident as a terrorist act.
The two sides also discussed issues of Uzbek-Russian partnership and alliance. At the end of the conversation, Mirziyoyev and Putin congratulated each other on the upcoming New Year 2026 and exchanged wishes of good health and well-being.
At the same time, the Kremlin press service used significantly harsher and more politically charged language. It claimed that Mirziyoyev “expressed outrage over the attack by Ukrainian drones on the residence of the President of Russia” and “condemned the reckless terrorist actions of the Kyiv regime.”
Thus, the Kremlin’s version of the conversation attributes to the president of Uzbekistan wording that is absent from the official Uzbek statement, including direct accusations against Ukraine and the use of the term “terrorism.”
It should be noted that Ukraine itself denies any attack on Vladimir Putin’s residence. Moreover, statements by Russian authorities about the alleged strike have not received independent confirmation: eyewitness accounts published in the media do not confirm that the attack took place.
From the perspective of international humanitarian law, the residence of a head of state involved in armed aggression may be considered a potential military target; however, this does not remove the need to reliably establish the very fact of an attack. At present, no such confirmation has been provided.
Claims by the Russian side about an alleged attack by Ukrainian drones appear to be an information construct used to intensify accusatory rhetoric and political pressure. In the absence of evidence, such statements are more likely to undermine trust in Moscow’s official communications than to contribute to its declared goals of “long-term peace.”