Ukraine hits St Petersburg, 7 dead in drone strike on bus
· RTE.ieUkrainian drones struck an oil terminal and naval base in St Petersburg hours before President Vladimir Putin's showcase economic forum got under way, an attempt to embarrass the Kremlin chief and show how vulnerable Russia's cities are.
The attack on St Petersburg, Mr Putin's home city, and the location of his own 'Davos' - a glitzy annual economic forum designed to attract foreign investment - comes as both sides dial up strikes against each other in their more than four-year-old war with no imminent end in sight.
Unspecified "infrastructure objects" had been attacked in three districts of Russia's second-biggest city and home to over 5 million people, Alexander Beglov, its governor, said. Air defences shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region, said.
"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.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirmed his country's drones had struck the fuel terminal and said they had also targeted a military facility in Kronstadt on an island near the city where elements of Russia's Baltic Fleet and major shipbuilding and repair facilities are located.
Ukraine's General Staff said preliminary information indicated that ships and infrastructure had been hit in Kronstadt. Reuters could not independently verify that or how seriously the oil terminal had been damaged.
Unconfirmed video posted to social media showed locals filming Ukrainian aeroplane-style drones as they flew over parts of the city as fires appeared to rage at the export fuel terminal in the background. What sounded like anti-aircraft fire could be heard as one drone flew on unhindered.
Given the importance of the event to Moscow, the Ukrainian attack is likely to raise questions inside Russia about how effective its own air defence capabilities are, a problem that Ukraine is also grappling with. The location of the economic forum itself was heavily protected however, and there was no suggestion that Ukrainian drones had got close to the venue.
Some 20,000 guests from 130 countries are set to attend the three-day annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum - an event that was once Russia's premier gathering to court Western investors and businesses.
"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, posting a video of delegates walking to the venue with smoke visible in the background.
Seven dead and 11 wounded in drone strike on bus
Separately, a drone strike killed seven people and wounded 11 as it hit a bus in Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine, Moscow-installed authorities in the Donetsk region have said.
The bus was hit in the Donetsk region as it travelled from Moscow to Simferopol in Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula that 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.
Meanwhile, a Russian drone strike killed a woman in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, according to regional authorities.
Russia said its air defences intercepted 354 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions, including areas bordering Ukraine and annexed Crimea overnight into this morning.
The Russian defence ministry said the drones were downed over Belgorod, Kursk and other western regions, as well as near Moscow and over the Sea of Azov.
Russia and Ukraine have traded regular aerial assaults since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, deploying waves of missiles and drones in tit-for-tat strikes.
Yesterday, Ukraine said that Russia had fired 73 missiles and 656 drones in one of the largest attacks of the war, overwhelming parts of its air defence, killing at least 23 people and damaging cities including Kyiv and Dnipro.
NATO chief arrives in Kyiv on unannounced visit
NATO chief Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv this morning for an unannounced trip, Ukraine's national railway operator said, after a series of large-scale fatal Russian attacks on the Ukrainian capital.
Mr Zelensky, who is expected to meet with Mr Rutte, has been appealing to members of the defence bloc for help protecting Ukraine from Russian ballistic missile attacks.
"Today at the Kyiv railway station, we are gladly welcoming NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte," Ukrzaliznytsia wrote on social media alongside images of the NATO chief on the platform.
"This visit is extremely important, just like all the previous ones, because it is a gesture of solidarity and support from the Alliance for our country," Ukrzaliznytsia wrote on social media.
The post was later deleted.
Zelensky has been pushing NATO countries to up their deliveries of air defence systems - in particular US-made Patriot batteries and ammunition, which Kyiv says it needs to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles.