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Russia’s escalating claims that Ukraine was trying to use drones to strike a compound used by President Vladimir Putin have been dismissed by a top military drone expert, who called the alleged attack “incomprehensible” and tactically implausible.
Cameron Chell’s comments come as Russia steps up accusations Kiev categorically denies, with the drone industry leader arguing that the alleged attack announced on Monday ran counter to Ukraine’s drone strategy.
Chell, CEO and Co-Founder dragonflyA drone manufacturer that supplies the U.S. Department of Defense and allied forces, including Ukraine, said Russia’s claims lacked credibility.
A Ukrainian soldier launches a surveillance drone in the Zaporozhye region of Ukraine. (AP Photo/Andrei Andriyenko)
“Things in Ukraine are usually very iconic because they are always very smart about how they Use a drone“, Chel told Fox Digital News.
“They’re smart from a cost perspective – we call it an efficiency perspective – but their strategy is also very smart,” he added.
“It’s hard for me to understand that this drone attack happened in Putin’s official residence Or that this was something orchestrated by Ukraine for a number of reasons,” Chel said.
“First of all, in order to fly over the top of Putin’s official residence, the drone will not be launched from a very long distance,” he added.
On June 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin chaired a cabinet meeting on the outskirts of Moscow. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik News Agency, Kremlin swimming pool photo from AP)
Chel’s comments came as Russia stepped up its efforts on Tuesday to accuse Ukraine of trying to use drones to attack the presidential palace in the Novgorod region, allegedly in an effort to undermine peace efforts.
Kyiv dismissed the accusation, and the timing also raised questions given the upbeat tone of a recent meeting between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Florida.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed late Monday that 91 drones were intercepted on their way to Putin’s residence on the shores of Lake Valdai.
His statement appeared to contradict earlier statistics from the Ministry of Defense, which said 89 drones were shot down in eight regions, including 18 over Novgorod, and 23 more were later added.
Only after Lavrov spoke did the ministry claim that 49 drones intercepted over Bryansk, nearly 300 miles away, were also targeting Valdai.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed late Monday that 91 drones were intercepted on their way to Putin’s official residence. (Telegram channel of the Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Associated Press)
Asked about the wreckage, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was “a matter for our troops,” while calling Zelensky denies Western skepticism is “completely insane.”
Peskov said Russia’s diplomatic stance would become tougher and Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin vowed not to “forgive” Zelensky.
Chel said the story simply didn’t add up. “To attack Putin’s residence, you need a long-range, very fast-moving drone,” he said.
He added that for such small drones to reach such a site they would have to be launched from a much closer location, most likely within Russia.
“They must be within about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles), or at most 30 kilometers, of Putin’s residence,” Chel said.
“That facility where Putin lives is also going to be very secure, so it would be very un-Ukrainian to allow a large number of lower-cost, slower-moving drones into that facility,” Chel said.
Satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies show that a Ukrainian drone struck the Belaya air base in Russia’s Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia on June 4, causing damage. (Maxar Technologies, Inc. via AP)
“Ukraine has also not announced when they will appear,” he added.
Chel also noted that nighttime operations would preclude GPS or artificial intelligence-based navigation due to interference and visibility restrictions, making launching dozens of drones even more impossible.
“Obviously things are at night, so that’s very difficult with machine vision or artificial intelligence mapping software,” he said. “So, you know, it’s definitely not using GPS because it would be jammed. There’s just a lot of stuff that doesn’t make sense.”
Chel believes that politically, Ukraine has nothing to gain. “They are bold, but in the middle of the peace talks – when they need Trump on their side – it makes no sense,” he said.Ukraine is only political Too smart for that. “
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Zelensky also on Monday Said this statement is completely fabricatedaccusing Moscow of laying the groundwork for further attacks.
Lavrov warned Russia would retaliate 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 if he had evidence, Trump responded: “We’re going to find out.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Kremlin for comment.
