'DRONE STRIKE' ON VLAD TURF
Ukraine hits the birthplace of Putin
A massive explosion damaged a pair of apartment buildings in St. Petersburg on Saturday in what local media reports attributed to a Ukrainian drone attack.
No deaths were reported following the early-morning devastation in Russia’s second-largest city, where President Vladimir Putin was born, officials said.
St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov confirmed two buildings were damaged in an “incident.”
“The glazing of the balconies of two houses was partially damaged,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. “The residents of the affected apartments have been evacuated.”
Footage published by Russianlanguage Telegram channel Mash shows the moment an object smashed into the five-story apartment complex, causing a bright flash of light before debris and fragments burst into the air and shower down.
Additional footage shows the wreckage of the building’s mangled balconies, while flames continued to burn.
In another clip, a powerful explosion can be heard, along with car alarms blaring.
A drone crashing into the apartment buildings may have caused the damage, Mash and Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The drone strike likely was targeting the Ruchi oil depot northeast of St. Petersburg, and less than a mile north of the site of Saturday’s explosion in the Krasnogvardeysky district, Mash said.
In recent months, Ukraine has targeted a number of oil facilities across Russia amid its war with Moscow.
Ukrainian military officials say they aim to cut off Moscow’s fuel supplies for its war effort while also crippling its finances by wiping out supply for a vital export.
More attacks
Nearly 100 people, including rescuers and medics, were working on the site and an operational headquarters had been set up, state news agency Tass reported.
A Ukrainian drone also struck an investigative team in Russia’s Bryansk region, according to the Russian Investigative Committee, wounding two and causing two others to suffer shock.
The strikes in Russia came as four Ukrainians were killed when pieces of a downed Shahed drone struck an apartment building in the southern port city of Odessa, Ukrainian officials said Saturday.
A 3-month-old baby was among those killed, and another eight people sustained injuries, authorities said.
The attack was one of 17 drone strikes launched across the country. Fourteen of the aircraft were shot down by the Ukrainian air defenses, military officials said.
A 53-year-old man in the partly occupied Kherson region was also killed Saturday morning by Russian shelling, according to the Kherson Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
Shelling also continued in the eastern province of Kharkiv, where more than 20 settlements were bombarded with Russian artillery and mortar attacks and a Russian drone strike hit several high-rise buildings in the eponymous capital, Kharkiv regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
Three people suffered “acute stress reaction,” but no deaths were reported, he said.