Ukraine hits St. Petersburg again after Putin rejects talks

Published 7 June 2026 · world

Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg and the surrounding region for a second time after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's offer of

Ukrainian drones targeted St. Petersburg and the surrounding region for a second time after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's offer of peace talks. The Russian city of St. Petersburg was targeted by a fresh barrage of long-range Ukrainian drones on Saturday as an international economic forum in the city came to a close. Alexander Drosdenko, the governor of the Leningrad Region, which surrounds St. Petersburg (formerly known as Leningrad),said air defenses shot down 141 drones in an "unprecedented attack," while people within the city were warned to take shelter. "In accordance with the recommendations of the emergency response team, I ask the residents of St. Petersburg to stay in their homes and not to go out onto the streets," the municipal governor, Alexander Beglov, wrote on Telegram. "There may be interruptions to mobile internet," Beglov added. The nearby island of Kronstadt in the Gulf of Finland, home to Russia's Baltic Fleet, was also targeted, causing a fire. "Such special operations weaken the Baltic Fleet," said the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), claiming to have hit missile and ammunition arsenals. Just to the south of Kronstadt on the Russian mainland, local media reported that 600 people had to leave their homes in the coastal town of Bolshaya Ishora, while St. Peterburg's Pulkovo Airport, used by many of the economic forum's international guests, temporarily halted flights.

The attacks on St. Petersburg and the surrounding region, some 1,000 kilometers north of Ukraine, were part of a broader wave of attacks across several Russian regions. The Russian Defense Ministry said that a total of 376 Ukrainian drones were "intercepted" over over Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, and Tula regions, Moscow region, Crimea Republic, Abkhazia Republic, and over the waters of the Azov and Black Seas" – regions covering thousands of square kilometers of the vast Russian Federation. Ukraine takes aim at St. Petersburg, Putin's hometown To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Ukraine's Zelenskyy describes 'just response' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the strikes as a "just response" to continued Russian aggression against Ukraine, over four years on from Russia's full-scale invasion. The Ukrainian air force said on Saturday that it had shot down 249 of 272 Russian drones launched against Ukraine overnight. One person was killed and three wounded in Ukraine's eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, as Russian forces struck three districts nearly 30 times using drones and artillery. "It is time to end this war but Russia's ruler wants to keep fighting," Zelenskyy wrote on social media, claiming that "Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working." Saturday's large-scale Ukrainian drone attack was the second targeting the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in three days.