Ukraine hits St Petersburg again as Putin spurns talks
Residents of St Petersburg have been told not to leave their homes following a “large-scale” Ukrainian drone attack targeting the city.
Saturday’s attack underlined Kiev’s growing ability to penetrate deeper into Russia and came a day after the Russian President rejected an offer to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart.
St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov advised citizens not to go out and warned of possible disruptions in mobile internet service, while regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said 141 UAVs were shot down in the surrounding Leningrad region.
Russia’s defense ministry said its air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote about the attack on
Although no casualties were immediately reported, the renewed attack on St Petersburg was the latest embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray the conflict as a distant event that does not affect Russian daily life.
Putin’s annual investment showcase, St. A drone strike in Ukraine set fire to an oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base on Wednesday, hours before the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
Speaking at the forum, Putin said on Thursday that Russia would strengthen its air defenses against Ukraine’s latest drone strikes, which reached deep into his country and overshadowed the incident in his hometown of St Petersburg.
On Friday, Putin rejected Zelenskiy’s offer for a face-to-face meeting about the four-year-old conflict, saying he saw “no point.”
Thursday’s letter, Zelenskiy’s first public message directly to Putin since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, included broad criticism of the Russian leader’s 26-year rule as well as some jibes about his age.
Responding to Putin’s rejection of the proposed meeting, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Saturday that things “will only get worse for Russia.”
“Failures will be more humiliating,” he wrote in his article to
While the front line barely moves as swarms of UAVs impede progress, both sides attempt to gain the upper hand by launching long-range attacks.
One person was killed and three others were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region on Saturday after Russian forces hit three regions in Ukraine almost 30 times with drones and artillery, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said.
Seven people sought medical attention after a Russian drone strike started a fire in a parking lot in Zaporizhia, according to regional head Ivan Fedorov.
Russia targeted Ukraine with 272 attack aircraft overnight and its air defenses shot down 249 of them, Ukraine’s air force said on Saturday.
