Ukrainian drones target St Petersburg after Putin’s visit; Russia rejects Zelenskyy’s talks offer

New Delhi: Ukraine targeted St Petersburg in northwestern Russia, raining missiles on the second-largest city, a day after Vladimir Putin’s visit to attend an international economic forum, when he refused to hold direct peace talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On Saturday, Ukrainian missiles were fired at St Petersburg, which hosted the global economic meet, where Putin had expressed his views on geopolitics, including Russian ties with friends India and China.

“Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometres to the St. Petersburg region … to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. He added that the drones also hit an oil depot in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region. The fresh attacks on St Petersburg are the latest escalation in the Ukraine-Russia war, and come as an embarrassment for Putin, who was in the city on Friday and hosted a global meet there. The Russian president’s efforts to project the Ukraine war as a distant event that did not disturb daily life were demolished by the Ukrainian attack in the far northwestern part of his nation.

Russia advised residents of the city not to venture out of their homes after the large-scale Ukrainian drone attack. Ukraine has previously demonstrated its capabilities to target deep inside Russia during the four-plus years of war that began in February 2022, destroying key military assets in those strikes. The latest drone strikes were a validation of that Ukrainian capabilities.

Ukrainian drone strikes St Petersburg

Reports from Russia quoted St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov on three civilians being injured in the Ukrainian attacks. Beglov asked the city’s residents to stay indoors, warning them of possible disruptions to mobile connectivity. The regional governor, Alexander Drozdenko, said Russian air defence had intercepted 141 Ukrainian drones over the Leningrad region, describing the drone strikes as “unprecedented”.

Reports claimed a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal in St. Petersburg set the facility on fire. The drones also struck a nearby naval base on Wednesday, just hours before the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin’s signature annual investment show.  The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, claimed it shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.

Ukraine too faced Russian drone fury. On Saturday, Russia hit three Ukrainian districts in the Dnipropetrovsk region with nearly 30 times higher number of drones and artillery, according to the regional chief Oleksandr Hanzha. In Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia, seven people were rushed to hospitals after a Russian drone hit a parking lot, setting the place ablaze, the regional head Ivan Fedorov said. Russia targeted Ukraine overnight with 272 strike drones. Ukrainian air defences shot down 249 of them, the Ukrainian air force said Saturday.

Putin rejects Zelenskyy’s talks proposal

At the forum on Thursday and Friday, Putin said Russia would strengthen its air defences to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks that had only increased in scale and depth in recent months. The latest drone attacks last week had cast a doubt on the event’s safety and security in St. Petersburg, Putin’s hometown.

On Friday, Putin rejected Zelenskyy’s proposal to hold direct peace talks to end the war, noting he saw “no point” in meeting the Ukrainian president. Zelenskyy had published a letter, addressed to Putin, with a suggestion for talks on Thursday. This was the first direct message between the two presidents since the war began in 2022. The letter was also a sweeping criticism of Putin’s 26-year rule over Russia, taunting him about his age. While Putin is aged 73, Zelenskyy is 25 years younger at 48.

In response to Putin’s dismissal of Zelenskyy’s talks proposal, Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said things would “only get worse for Russia” in the war. “Failures will get more humiliating,” he wrote on X. Sybiha also warned that there were “no safe places in Russia that can be exempt” from Ukrainian long-range attacks. He further added that the intensity of attacks will “continue to grow”.

The war on the ground in Ukraine has seen no forward movement, as drone swarms from either side have hindered advances of troops, military vehicles, and their equipment. However, the war has gone asymmetrical through long-range aerial strikes using low-cost drones to target high-value assets on either side, escalating the military operations in the air domain.