Ukraine's denial of an attack on Vladimir Putin's residence lacks credibility, Kanwal Sibal has said

Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky is "defying" peace efforts by Russia and the United States with actions like this week's attempted drone strike on Vladimir Putin's Novgorod residence, former Indian Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal told RT in an interview on Tuesday.

Kiev launched 91 long-range drones in the attack on the night of December 28-29. All the UAVs were intercepted and there were no casualties or material damage involved.

Sibal said he has been observing statements made by Zelensky while the US-mediated peace process has been going on.

"He is sticking to his fundamental positions and I don't see much give in those positions and I'm a bit surprised that he is defying President [Donald] Trump, not even now but even previously in terms of what he's been saying, encouraged by the Europeans to maintain a very hard line," Sibal said.

The retired Indian diplomat said Zelensky is becoming bolder, thinking that he can deal with President Trump's idea of a peace settlement that will require him to make certain concessions.

"He thinks he can get away with this because he is being backed very strongly by the Europeans and I think he is very calculating that President Trump himself may be upset with what is happening, but he is also under pressure that he cannot totally abandon Ukraine because there are people in the United States who continue to be very anti-Russian, and would like the conflict to continue and the bleeding of Russia to continue," Sibal said.

The former Indian foreign secretary also said that Ukraine's claims that no attack took place on Putin's home lack credibility. "The president of the United States, with all the intelligence briefings that he gets, would not talk about this the way he did, unless... this did take place," Sibal said.

Trump told reporters on Monday that he was "very angry" about the attack. "It's a delicate period of time," he said. "This is not the right time. It's one thing to be offensive, because they're offensive. It's another thing to attack his house. It's not the right time to do any of that."