Ukraine has launched a large-scale drone attack on St Petersburg, Russia, causing the city’s governor to beg residents not to go outside.
Adrian Zorzut
Ukraine has launched a cunning, large-scale drone attack on Russia’s St Petersburg as the city wraps up a major economic summit.
Russia said it intercepted hundreds of Ukrainian drones near the ancient city while its governor, Alexandor Beglov, begged residents not to go outside and warned access to the internet may have been cut off during Saturday’s strike.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed his military carried out large-scale strikes across multiple Russian regions overnight - some as deep as 1,000km into Russian territory, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Drones also hit an oil depot in Krasnodar Krai, some 500 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, he added.
“It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working,” Mr Zelensky said on social media.
Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defences shot down 376 Ukrainian drones. No casualties were immediately reported.
The attack is a blow for Russian President Vladimir Putin who has tried to portray his country as open to business and safe to operate in at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) - once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” - which wrapped up on Saturday, a day after the event featured a speech by him.
On the first day of the summit, Ukrainian drones hit an oil complex and military base in Saint Petersburg, which is also Putin’s home city.
In southern Ukraine, authorities found the bodies of two men who had been unaccounted for following an attack on Zaporizhzhia, according to regional governor Ivan Fedorov.
One person was killed and three wounded in Russian drone and artillery attacks in Dnipropetrovsk, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram.
A fire broke out at an oil depot in the city of Ust-Labinsk in southern Russia following a drone attack, according to local authorities, with no reports of wounded.
It comes as President Putin on Friday ruled out meeting his Ukrainian counterpart any time soon, a day after President Zelensky called for a sit-down between the leaders to end the four-year war.
Speaking at an economic forum in his home city of St Petersburg, Putin said he saw “no point” in meeting Mr Zelensky until a possible peace deal had been agreed. Mr Zelensky hit back saying the Russian leader was “weak” and “choosing war again”.
Mr Putin also vowed to press on with Russia’s military offensive until its war goals had been achieved.
Russia has demanded control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region as well as sweeping political and military restrictions on its neighbour.
Kyiv and its allies have ruled the conditions as tantamount to capitulation and US-brokered peace talks have failed to bring the sides closer.
-With AFP
