Ukraine launches 'unprecedented' drone strike on St Petersburg as Putin rejects peace talks

Russian authorities have described a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region as "unprecedented," with more than 140 drones shot down over the area. The strikes occurred on the final day of Russia’s annual economic forum, prompting St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov to urge residents to remain indoors for the first time since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Leningrad region governor Aleksandr Drozdenko confirmed the interception of the drones, marking a significant escalation in aerial threats against a major Russian city.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that his forces targeted Russian naval arsenals and a base in Kronstadt, as well as an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, located approximately 500km away. Zelensky described the operation as a "just response" to Russian attacks and declared on social media that it was "time to end this war," accusing President Vladimir Putin of wanting to "keep fighting." The Ukrainian president noted that the drones had covered a distance of 1,000km to reach the St Petersburg region.

The military operation followed a diplomatic impasse, occurring shortly after Putin refused Zelensky’s request for direct face-to-face negotiations. During a speech at the economic forum, Putin reiterated that peace talks must precede any ceasefire and insisted that Russia would only end the war when its goals were met. Russia’s longstanding position requires Ukraine to withdraw from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions and abandon efforts to join Nato. Zelensky had previously sent an open letter calling for negotiations, arguing it would be "wrong to simply wait" for the conflict to regain international attention.

Concurrently, Ukrainian drone strikes have disrupted logistics infrastructure in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region. Moscow-installed authorities there have suspended coach services on two motorways and banned commuter train services, citing security reasons. The administration also prohibited the transport of groups of children within the region. An analyst told the BBC that more than 200 lorries and over 30 fuel trucks had been hit by Ukrainian drones in occupied Ukraine since the beginning of May, highlighting a sustained campaign against Russian supply lines.

The attack underscores the widening scope of Ukraine’s aerial campaign, which has increasingly targeted Russian logistics in occupied territories in recent weeks. Despite the disruption to transport networks and the strike on naval assets in Kronstadt, the political gap between Kyiv and Moscow remains wide, with Putin maintaining that negotiations are contingent on Ukraine meeting specific territorial and political conditions.