Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at Russia early on Friday, killing one person and setting an oil depot ablaze on the final day of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), Russian officials said.
The Russian Defence Ministry said air defences intercepted 376 drones over 16 regions and the waters of the Azov and Black Seas, with more than 140 shot down over the Leningrad region surrounding St Petersburg, Ada Derana reported, citing AFP. St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov issued a rare call for residents to stay indoors during the attack, the second on the city in less than a week. Three people were lightly injured and discharged after treatment, he said.
A fire broke out at an oil depot in the southern town of Ust-Labinsk, while drone debris killed a man in the western Tver region, according to local officials.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strikes as a “just response” to Russian aggression. “It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting,” he said on X.
The attack came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected a proposal by Zelensky for a leaders’ meeting, telling delegates at SPIEF — an event Moscow brands as “Russia’s Davos” — that he saw “no point” in meeting the Ukrainian leader until a peace deal had been agreed. Zelensky responded by calling Putin “weak” and accused him of “choosing war again”. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on Friday that “Putin lost his chance to get out of his failed war.”
Russia renewed strikes on Ukraine the same day. The bodies of two men missing after an earlier attack on Zaporizhzhia were recovered, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said, while Russian drone and artillery attacks in the central Dnipropetrovsk region killed one person and wounded three others.
The drone barrage and Putin’s rejection at SPIEF mark the sharpest escalation in the four-year war since US-led diplomatic efforts stalled over the conflict in the Middle East. Russian President Putin used SPIEF this week to host other heads of state, after telling reporters last weekend that sanctions threats against India would “boomerang” under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Drone strikes have continued to target Russian oil infrastructure, including a major fire at the Krasnodar terminal earlier this cycle.
