Russia in flames as Ukraine bombards oil depots with lethal drone blitzkrieg | World | News
Ukraine has launched a violent attack on the Russian city of St Petersburg, the second of its kind in a week. Residents of Russia’s second-largest city have been told not to leave their homes as Ukrainian drones hit military and industrial targets more than 1,000 kilometers away from their launch sites; This underlined the country’s increasing ability to strike deeper and deeper into Russian territory.
The attack took place a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected an offer to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said three people were slightly injured in the attack.
Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko advised residents not to go out and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet service, while regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down in the surrounding Leningrad region in what he called an “unprecedented attack”.
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense shot down 376 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote about the attack on
Although no casualties were immediately reported, St. The renewed attack on St. Petersburg has dealt another embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s efforts to portray the conflict as a distant event that does not affect Russian daily life.
Saturday’s attack occurred at St. Petersburg, Mr. Putin’s annual investment showcase. It follows a Ukrainian drone strike on Wednesday that set fire to an oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base, 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.
Mr Putin on Friday rejected Mr Zelensky’s offer for a face-to-face meeting about the four-year conflict, saying it made “no sense”.
Thursday’s letter, Mr. Zelensky’s first public message directly to Mr. Putin since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, included broad criticism of the Russian leader’s 26 years in power, as well as some jibes about his age.
Responding to Mr Putin’s rejection of the proposed meeting, Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said on Saturday that things “will only get worse for Russia”.
“Failures will be even more humiliating,” he wrote to X, warning that there was no safe place in Russia that would be immune from Ukraine’s long-range attacks and that the intensity of the attacks “will continue to increase.”
