Zelensky says Ukraine’s strikes on St. Petersburg were fair

Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal and a naval base in St Petersburg just hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to open his flagship economic forum, in a strike aimed at puncturing the Kremlin’s image and underscoring the exposure of Russia’s major cities.

The assault on St Petersburg, Mr Putin’s home city and host of his own glitzy version of ‘Davos’ — an annual showcase meant to lure foreign investors — came as both sides intensified attacks in a war now more than four years old, with no clear end in sight.

Unspecified “infrastructure objects” were struck in three districts of Russia’s second-largest city, home to more than 5 million people, according to governor Alexander Beglov. In the surrounding Leningrad region, governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defences brought down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight.

“Several facilities have been damaged. Clean-up operations are currently underway. Several people have been injured. There have been no fatalities,” Mr Beglov said in a statement.

“I believe these are fair strikes. Just a day ago, there was a massive attack. We responded accordingly,” Mr Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv.

“It’s just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses,” he added.

Ukraine’s General Staff said early information suggested ships and infrastructure in Kronstadt had been hit. Reuters could not independently verify that claim or assess how badly the oil terminal had been damaged.

Unverified videos posted on social media appeared to show residents filming Ukrainian fixed-wing drones as they crossed parts of the city, while flames seemed to burn at the export fuel terminal in the background. What sounded like anti-aircraft fire could be heard as one drone continued flying.

Because of the forum’s significance to Moscow, the Ukrainian strike is likely to sharpen questions inside Russia over the strength of its air defences — a challenge Ukraine itself continues to face.

The forum venue itself was under heavy protection, however, and there was no indication that Ukrainian drones had approached the site.

About 20,000 guests from 130 countries are expected at the three-day Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum, an event that once stood as Russia’s premier stage for courting Western companies and investors.

“The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes,” Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister wrote on social media, alongside a video showing delegates walking to the venue with smoke rising behind them.

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Seven dead and 11 wounded in drone strike on bus

A Russian official said the bus was travelling between Moscow and Simferopol

In a separate attack, a drone strike killed seven people and wounded 11 when it hit a bus in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, according to Moscow-installed authorities in the Donetsk region.

The bus was struck in the Donetsk region while travelling from Moscow to Simferopol in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia annexed in 2014.

“In Yenakiyevo, a UAV attacked a Moscow-Simferopol coach; according to preliminary reports, seven civilians were killed,” Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Telegram.

“A further 11 people sustained injuries of varying severity, and all are receiving the necessary medical care,” he added.

Elsewhere, regional authorities said a Russian drone strike killed a woman in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region.

Russia said its air defences intercepted 354 Ukrainian drones across several regions overnight and into this morning, including territory bordering Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

The Russian defence ministry said the drones were shot down over Belgorod, Kursk and other western regions, as well as near Moscow and above the Sea of Azov.

A day earlier, Ukraine said Russia had launched 73 missiles and 656 drones in one of the war’s largest assaults, swamping parts of its air defence network, killing at least 23 people and damaging cities including Kyiv and Dnipro.

Ukraine ready for direct talks

NATO chief Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit after a wave of large-scale deadly Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital.

Mr Zelensky has been urging NATO allies to step up deliveries of air defence systems, especially US-made Patriot batteries and ammunition, which Kyiv says are critical for intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte alongside Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky

“Thank God that today we have security guarantees that allow us to end this war on equal footing with the Russians in any format of diplomacy,” ‌Mr Zelensky told reporters in ⁠Kyiv, speaking alongside Mr Rutte.

He said it was “only a question of time” before Ukraine expanded the scale of its strikes, which have forced some Russian refineries to suspend operations and lifted morale among Ukrainians living under the constant threat of Russian drones and ‌missiles for more than four years.

As Ukraine has stepped up long-range strikes inside Russia, analysts say Kyiv’s forces on the battlefield appear to be in their strongest position in years.

Russia’s spring offensive is losing momentum, ‌partly because Ukrainian counter-attacks have kept its territorial gains marginal, they ⁠said.

Mr Zelensky said ‌he was prepared to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, arguing that direct talks were the only realistic way to break the main deadlock in stalled negotiations — the future of eastern ⁠Donbas.

Russia did not fully seize the area during its full-scale invasion and has demanded that ⁠Ukraine withdraw troops from parts of the region it still controls.

“I am ready for direct talks with Putin to bring this war to an end, rather than waiting for when all will resolve every conflict in the world before our turn finally comes,” Mr Zelensky said, in an apparent reference to the US-brokered talks and current ‌US focus on its war on Iran.