Russians told to shelter indoors as Ukraine launches ‘unprecedented’ drone attack

Ukraine has launched an “unprecedented attack” on St Petersburg as Russia’s annual economic forum enters its final day in the city, the Russian authorities have said.

Russia shot down over 140 drones over the Leningrad region, governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said.

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces attacked Russia’s base and a naval facility in a “just response” to Russian attacks.

Residents in St Petersberg were urged to stay indoors by the city’s governor, Alexander Beglov, for the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022

The attacks come at the end of Russia’s annual economic forum and just a day after Russia’s president gave a speech at the forum where he said there was no point in meeting Zelensky who had appealed for direct talks on ending the war.

On Saturday Zelensky posted on social media that it was “time to end this war”, but blamed Vladimir Putin for wanting to “keep fighting”.

Ukrainian drones travelled 1,000km to the St Petersburg region to target “the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt”, the Ukrainian leader said.

An oil depot in the southern Krasnodar region was also hit by a Ukrainian drone, officials said.

The attacks come after Zelensky issued an open letter on Thursday to Putin calling for face-to-face negotiations to end the war.

In the letter he wrote that it would be “wrong to simply wait” for the war to come back into the attention of the US.

Putin dismissed the request for a meeting on Friday and restated his view that peace talks should come before any ceasefire agreement is reached.

The Russian president insisted the war would only end when Russia’s goals were reached.