Russia says it intercepted and destroyed more than 300 drones

A sweeping Ukrainian drone barrage reached deep into Russian territory on Saturday, prompting air-defence responses across multiple regions, disrupting flights and rattling cities including Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram that its anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed 339 Ukrainian drones over 13 hours, from 7am to 8pm local time, across 13 regions as well as above parts of the Black Sea.

The ministry’s list of affected areas stretched across central Russia and extended north-west to the Leningrad and Pskov regions.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin posted a series of Telegram updates describing anti-aircraft operations targeting drones approaching the capital.

Russia’s civil aviation authority, meanwhile, repeatedly announced temporary flight suspensions at several airports.

Russian news agencies reported that four separate suspension orders were issued over the course of the day in Sochi, the Black Sea resort city.

Officials said Ukraine launched hundreds of drones into Russia on the closing day of the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Kremlin’s flagship investment showcase, killing one person and igniting a fire at an oil depot.

Saint Petersburg itself appeared to be a major target, marking the second Ukrainian drone strike on the city in less than a week, though authorities said the attack caused no major damage.

Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up drone warfare in recent months as US-led efforts to broker an end to the conflict — now in its fifth year — have faltered, with diplomatic attention increasingly diverted by the war in the Middle East.

The latest strikes followed a fresh clash between the two leaders: Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed a proposed meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who responded by accusing him of “choosing war again”.

Russian air defences intercepted drones “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,” the Russian defence ministry said.

The war must be brought to an end, Mr Zelensky said, but he argued that Russia’s leader remained determined to continue fighting. He said that was why Ukrainian pressure on what he called Russian aggression was having an effect, adding that Ukrainian drones had flown about 1,000 kilometres overnight to reach the Saint Petersburg region, striking what he described as enemy naval arsenals and a base… pic.twitter.com/IkdN8UE3QD

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 6, 2026

More than 140 drones were shot down over the Leningrad region surrounding Saint Petersburg, governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said.

Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov issued the unusual instruction for residents to remain indoors while the attack was under way.

“Russian air defences prevented any damage. The condition of the three injured is assessed as minor and they have been discharged,” he said.

Local officials said the strikes triggered a blaze at an oil depot in the southern town of Ust-Labinsk, while falling drone debris killed a man in the western Tver region.

As Putin’s Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum carried on, the city’s governor urged residents to stay inside during the Ukrainian drone assault

Mr Zelensky cast the strikes as a “just response” to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working,” he said on X.

“Any manifestation of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response.”

‘Choosing war again’

The barrage came one day after Mr Putin turned down Mr Zelensky’s call for a face-to-face meeting.

Addressing the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, or SPIEF — often billed as “Russia’s Davos” — Mr Putin said he saw “no point” in meeting the Ukrainian president before a possible peace agreement had been worked out.

Mr Zelensky fired back, calling the Russian leader “weak” and accusing him of “choosing war again”.

Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga sharpened that criticism.

“Putin lost his chance to get out of his failed war,” he said.

“Russia will still have to accept a diplomatic solution but the terms will be far worse.”

Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed since Mr Putin launched the full-scale invasion — which the Kremlin still describes as a “special military operation” — in February 2022.

Large parts of eastern and southern Ukraine have been devastated, and millions have been driven from their homes during a campaign Moscow appeared to expect would topple Kyiv within days.

A fire engine stands outside a distribution centre in the village of Slobozhanske in Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region

Russia resumed attacks on Ukraine early on Sunday.

In the south, authorities recovered the bodies of two men who had been missing after a strike on Zaporizhzhia, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said.

In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian drone and artillery strikes killed one person and wounded three others, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram.