Russia has accused Ukraine of preparing a false-flag operation intended to disrupt the August 15 meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska.
In a statement released Tuesday, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed, “According to information obtained through multiple channels, the Kiev regime is preparing a provocation aimed at disrupting the planned Russian-American talks scheduled for August 15 of this year. The provocation is being prepared by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and involves staging a drone and missile attack on civilian targets in the city of Chuguev, Kharkov region, before the summit. The attack is intended to be blamed on Russian forces to create negative publicity and derail the U.S.-Russian negotiations.”
The ministry alleged that the SBU has recently brought Western and Ukrainian journalists to Chuguev under the pretense of covering life near the frontlines, intending to use resulting media coverage to amplify accusations against Russia.
Kiril Dmitriev, a senior advisor to Putin, recently warned that “third countries and entities,” a reference understood to mean European states and Ukraine, would attempt to sabotage the upcoming meeting in Anchorage.
This would not be the first time Russia has accused Ukraine of preparing these types of actions. On April 8, 2022, Western journalists were brought to the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region to report on civilians evacuating by train. Shortly afterward, a rocket struck the station, killing more than 60 people and wounding over 100. Fragments from a Tochka-U ballistic missile—still in Ukrainian military service at the time—were recovered from the site.
Moscow claims that the Kramatorsk incident, along with alleged crimes in Bucha, was used by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to justify halting peace talks with Russia in the war’s early months. Negotiations between Kiev and Moscow did not resume for another three years.
The White House, while confirming Anchorage as the summit location, cautioned that the meeting is unlikely to produce a formal peace deal but could help improve mutual understanding between Washington and Moscow.