Moscow: St. Petersburg came under a massive Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday, St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said on his Max channel.
“On the morning of June 6, St. Petersburg came under a large-scale attack by military unmanned aerial vehicles. Air defence systems are operating. In accordance with the recommendations of the Operational Command, I ask St. Petersburg residents to remain in their homes and not to go outside,” the governor said.
Residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region have been reporting hearing powerful sonic impacts resembling explosions since early Saturday morning, reports Xinhua news agency.
According to the governor of the Leningrad region, which surrounds St. Petersburg, 86 UAVs had been shot down by Saturday morning.
No casualties or damage to infrastructure have been reported.
The attack marks the second major drone assault on St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region since the start of this year’s St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which concludes on Saturday.
Earlier on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s invitation to a meeting to end the war in Ukraine did not convince Russian President Vladimir Putin, who, at least for the moment, ruled out the possibility of a face-to-face meeting with the Kyiv leader.
Before the audience of the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Russian President indeed declared that he “still sees no reason” to meet the Ukrainian President, as hoped by the latter in a recent open letter, the Adnkronos news agency reported.
“I don’t see the point of a meeting. It would only be of interest to the Ukrainian side to stop the advance of our armed forces,” Putin said, adding that it is necessary to “let specialists work, develop solutions, and then we can meet”, thus arguing that a meeting with Zelensky would be “useless” until a peace agreement is reached.
The Russian President said that he had “a quick look” at Zelensky’s letter.
“Spokesman Peskov showed me this letter yesterday. But we had a working meeting, a working dinner with the President of Uzbekistan (Shavkat Mirziyoyev). Frankly, I didn’t have time to look at it. This morning, Peskov passed it to me again. I gave it a quick look, but I read it nonetheless,” Putin added, according to the Russian news agency.
According to the Russian leader, the letter “effectively contains elements of rudeness. Is it a way to create conditions for a meeting and negotiations, or to create a context in which any meeting becomes impossible? I believe it is the second option.”
“Military actions will end sooner or later, we are convinced of that. Without a doubt, they will end once the objectives we have set for ourselves are achieved,” Putin said.
“Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — and you. I am proposing a meeting,” Zelensky said in his open letter.
“It would be wrong to simply wait until the war in Europe returns to the centre of its attention,” he added.
He proposed that Switzerland, Turkey and countries of the Arab World host the meetings and resolve issues.
(IANS)
