Russia said it shot down a wave of Ukrainian drones that swept across the country for 13 hours, forcing airport disruptions, prompting stay-indoors warnings in Saint Petersburg, and leaving one man dead as debris fell in the Tver region.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Russia’s defence ministry reported that its anti-aircraft units intercepted and destroyed 339 Ukrainian drones between 7am and 8pm local time. The ministry said the interceptions were recorded across 13 regions, as well as in areas over the Black Sea.
The affected areas, according to the ministry, included several regions in central Russia and stretched to the northwest, including the Leningrad and Pskov regions.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin issued a string of Telegram updates throughout the day describing anti-aircraft activity against drones over the capital. An unofficial count said 14 had been downed over Moscow during the day.
Russia’s civil aviation authority repeatedly announced temporary flight suspensions to various airports as the drone activity unfolded. Russian news agencies reported that four separate suspension orders were issued at different times for the Black Sea resort city of Sochi.
Officials said Ukraine launched hundreds of drones at Russia on the final day of the country’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, with one person killed and an oil depot set on fire. Many of the drones targeted Saint Petersburg itself, marking the second Ukrainian strike on the city in less than a week, though authorities said there was no major damage.
Drone attacks on both sides have escalated in recent months, with Moscow and Kyiv trading strikes as US-led diplomatic efforts to end the war — now in its fifth year — remain stalled amid the conflict in the Middle East.
The barrage came a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for a meeting, drawing a sharp response from Mr Zelensky, who accused the Russian leader of “choosing war again”.
In its Telegram post, the Russian defence ministry said air defences intercepted drones “over Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Leningrad, Novgorod, Oryol, Pskov, Rostov, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tver, and Tula regions, Moscow region, Crimea Republic, Abkhazia Republic, and over the waters of the Azov and Black Seas,” the Russian defence ministry said.
It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working. Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg region – to the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base… pic.twitter.com/IkdN8UE3QD
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 6, 2026
In the Leningrad region, which surrounds Saint Petersburg, governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said more than 140 drones were shot down.
Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov issued an unusually direct warning to residents during the attack, urging them to stay indoors.
“Russian air defences prevented any damage. The condition of the three injured is assessed as minor and they have been discharged,” he said.
Local officials said the strikes ignited a blaze at an oil depot in the southern town of Ust-Labinsk. In the western Tver region, officials said drone debris killed a man.
Vladimir Putin’s Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum continued as the city’s governor asked residents to stay indoors due to Ukrainian drone attacks
Mr Zelensky framed the drone campaign as retaliation for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, calling it a “just response” to aggression.
“It is time to end this war. But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting. That is why Ukrainian sanctions against this aggression are working,” he wrote on X.
“Any manifestation of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response.”
‘Choosing war again’
The renewed strikes followed Mr Putin’s rejection of Mr Zelensky’s request for talks.
Addressing the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) — often dubbed “Russia’s Davos” — Mr Putin said he saw “no point” in meeting the Ukrainian leader until a potential peace agreement had been reached.
Mr Zelensky responded by describing Mr Putin as “weak” and said he was “choosing war again”.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga also criticised the Russian leader.
“Putin lost his chance to get out of his failed war,” he said.
“Russia will still have to accept a diplomatic solution but the terms will be far worse.”
Since Mr Putin launched the full-scale offensive — which he calls a “special military operation” — in February 2022, hundreds of thousands have been killed.
Large areas of eastern and southern Ukraine have been devastated, and millions displaced, in a four-year campaign in which Moscow had hoped Kyiv would fall within days.
A fire engine outside a distribution center in the village of Slobozhanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine
Russia also resumed attacks on Ukraine early this morning.
In southern Ukraine, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said authorities found the bodies of two men who had been missing after an attack on Zaporizhzhia.
In Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region, regional governor Oleksandr Ganzha wrote on Telegram that Russian drone and artillery strikes killed one person and wounded three others.
