St. Petersburg residents told not to leave their homes: Major Ukrainian drone attack on Russian city?

Residents of St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, were told not to leave their homes after a "major" Ukrainian drone strike targeted the city this morning, underscoring Kiev's growing ability to strike targets deep inside Russia.

The attack came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected an offer to meet with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov advised residents not to go outside and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet, while Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko announced that 141 drones had been shot down over the region.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that air defenses shot down a total of 376 Ukrainian drones.

"Last night, our drones traveled about 1.000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region - to the enemy's naval arsenal and base in Kronstadt," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on the Iks network, according to the AP.

Although there are no immediate reports of casualties, the new attack on St. Petersburg is the latest embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to portray the conflict as a distant event that has no impact on daily life in Russia, the AP writes.

A Ukrainian drone attack set fire to an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Wednesday and hit a nearby naval base, hours before the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin's annual event to attract investment.

Speaking at the forum, Putin said Thursday that Russia would strengthen its air defenses to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks, which reached deep inside his country and cast a shadow over the event in his native St. Petersburg.

Putin on Friday rejected Zelensky's proposal for a face-to-face meeting on the four-year conflict, saying he saw "no point" in it. Thursday's letter, Zelensky's first public message directly to Putin since Russia sent troops to Ukraine in 2022, was a sweeping criticism of the Russian leader's 26 years in power, as well as several mockeries of his age.