Ukraine fired a record 376 drones at Russia early Saturday, striking the outskirts of St Petersburg on the final day of the country’s flagship economic forum and igniting an oil depot in the south, officials said. It was the second Ukrainian attack on Russia’s second city in less than a week and the largest single drone assault of the war.
Russian air defenses intercepted drones across 13 regions, the Defence Ministry said, but over 140 were shot down over the Leningrad region alone, which surrounds St Petersburg. Governor Alexander Beglov issued a rare call for residents to stay indoors during the attack. Mobile internet was disrupted and Pulkovo Airport was temporarily closed. Three districts of St Petersburg were hit, though no deaths were reported in the city.
Ukraine’s SBU security service confirmed it had targeted the Kronstadt naval base — the main outpost of the Russian Navy’s Baltic Fleet — and the 15th Arsenal in the Leningrad region. Unverified video posted by Ukrainian military figures showed drones heading toward docked military ships, including the corvette Boikiy. Black plumes of smoke rose over the city’s sea front as dawn broke.
The strikes came a day after President Vladimir Putin rejected a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, telling the St Petersburg International Economic Forum he saw “no point” in face-to-face talks until a peace deal had been pre-agreed. Zelensky accused him of being “weak” and “choosing war again.” Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Putin had “lost his chance to get out of his failed war” and that diplomatic terms would only worsen for Moscow.
A drone strike also set an oil depot ablaze in the southern town of Ust-Labinsk, and debris killed a 64-year-old man in the western Tver region. Russia simultaneously renewed its own attacks on Ukraine: a Russian drone killed a man in the Mykolaiv region and wounded a 10-year-old boy and his father in Zaporizhzhia, while artillery strikes in Dnipropetrovsk killed one and wounded three more.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow’s response would be “systemic in nature.” The SPIEF forum — once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” — has drawn thousands of guests from 130 countries this year, including a low-key US delegation for the first time in nearly a decade. The unprecedented drone wave underscores how Ukraine’s domestic drone industry has matured into a strategic weapon capable of reaching deep into Russian territory, even as diplomatic efforts to end the war remain stalled.
Written by Sarah Mitchell, Chief Opinion Columnist
