Ukrainian long-range drones have struck an oil terminal in St Petersburg and set it ablaze, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The attack happened as the Russian city hosted an annual international economic forum promoted by President Vladimir Putin.
The drones flew more than 600 miles to hit the terminal, Mr Zelensky said on social media. Clouds of black smoke rose over the city’s port after the attack.
Russian authorities said only that the Ukrainian drone strike targeted the city’s infrastructure, without providing further details.
The airport of St Petersburg briefly suspended flights overnight because of the attack. Authorities also cut off mobile internet services.
Mr Putin is set to speak on Friday at the economic forum in St Petersburg that the Kremlin views as a prestige event, although major western investors and officials have stayed away since Russia invaded Ukraine more than four years ago.
Saudi Arabia is a special guest country this year and is due to send a large business delegation.
The strikes are an embarrassment for Mr Putin, weeks after he had to prune back an annual Victory Day parade in Moscow due to fears of Ukrainian drone attacks.
The strikes came a day after Russian forces launched a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing 23 civilians and wounding 151 other people, as Moscow followed through with its threat of escalating its regular barrages.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Russia’s deep strikes have already taken on a “systematic” character.
Ukraine is short of American-made Patriot air defence missiles, in part because of US stocks being depleted by the Iran war, leaving it vulnerable to Moscow’s ballistic missiles.
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Mr Zelensky expressed frustration with his own government’s officials, saying there is an agreement “at the highest political level” for the purchase of Patriot systems but implementation is being held up by financial, legal and technical considerations.
“The wait has taken too long,” he said on social media, demanding that officials unblock the purchase or there will be “serious personnel decisions”.
Nato chief Mark Rutte arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Wednesday for talks with officials that are likely to cover air defence needs.
With the front line changing little as swarms of drones hinder battlefield movement, both sides have sought an edge by increasingly launching long-range strikes. The war that followed Russia’s invasion of its neighbour has now stretched into its fifth year, with no end in sight.
Ukraine’s attacks are aimed at diminishing Russia’s oil production, which is a key source of funding for Moscow, and disrupting weapon production.
Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil facilities at the port of St Petersburg and nearby ports.
Other Ukrainian drone attacks overnight set fire to the Russian guided-missile corvette Boikiy, which was in dry dock at the Kronstadt naval base, according to Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. Kronstadt is an old base for Russia’s Baltic Fleet located west of St Petersburg.
Drones also hit a Russian manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in the Tambov region, 370 miles from Ukraine, Mr Zelensky said.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight.
In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus that was travelling from Moscow to Crimea, killing seven and injuring 11, according to the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin.
In the Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, according to the regional governor, Vasily Anokhin. He said two other firefighters and a local resident were injured.
Meanwhile, Russia fired 198 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s air force, with air defences neutralising 189.
Authorities in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said that over the previous 24 hours one civilian was killed and 15 more were injured, including three children, by Russian strikes.
In Kherson, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people, according to regional authorities.
