Drones attack Russia from all sides

 

Drones attack Russia from all sides.

Chaos erupted in Russia overnight as drones overran several regions, triggering an explosion at an oil depot and deploying fighter jets near Saint Petersburg, according to local reports.

One of the strikes was around 2 a.m. in the Krasnodar region, less than 100 feet from the Russian Defense Ministry barracks, according to the independent Aginstvo News report. Two drones packed with explosives landed at the nearby Rosneft oil depot in Tuapse, starting a fire that was "quickly put out," according to Russian oil outlets.

Hours later, Saint Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport stopped as authorities closed off the surrounding airspace in response to an "unidentified flying object" spotted in the area.

Although they did not explain the move, local authorities confirmed to RIA Novosti that incoming and outgoing flights had been temporarily stopped. Meanwhile, Baza reports that fighter jets have been deployed to shoot down the "object."

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the whole thing was just a training exercise, and the airspace was reopened.

Drones were also reported overnight in the Bryansk and Belgorod regions and the Republic of Adygea. Another drone landed in the Moscow region near the Gazprom gas compression station on Tuesday. Local reports indicated that the drone could have reached the Kremlin in less than an hour if it had not crashed.

"The FSB and other relevant authorities are dealing with the situation, and there is no threat to the safety of residents," Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov said in a statement.

The strikes were part of what local media described as a "mass drone attack" that appears to have intensified in the past 24 hours.

Monday morning, residents of an apartment building in the Belgorod region, near the border with Ukraine, were forced to evacuate in the middle of the night after one of the four planes crashed into the building, according to Baza. Another drone landed on the roof of a supermarket, exploding and burning the building.

"People were taken to a safe place. Everyone was offered the opportunity to stay in a hotel while the special services did their work," Belgorod Mayor Valentin Demidov announced on Telegram.

While no casualties were reported, Russian pro-war military bloggers were outraged by the drone strikes.

"The enemy launched a daring attack today, drones in Belgorod, Tuapse, Adygea, and now in St. Petersburg, and because of this, the airspace in the city and the region is closed," reads a Telegram post by Wagner-connected gray zone.

Another popular pro-Kremlin channel said the drone attack should be seen as "preparation for the spring offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine when the purpose of such strikes is to destabilize the home front and spread mass panic among Russians."