Russia shoots down 92 drones over Leningrad region

Russia shot down 92 drones early on Wednesday in an attack over the Leningrad region northwest of Moscow, Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on the Telegram messaging app.

The region is home to the ports of Ust-Luga, Primorsk and Vysotsk, key for Russia’s oil and grain exports on the Baltic Sea, as well as the Kirishi oil refinery, Russia’s second-largest.

Reuters could not immediately independently confirm the report.

On Monday, a drone struck the Kirishi refinery, run by Surgutneftegaz, setting the plant on fire, and killed a woman in the region where St Petersburg, the hometown of President Vladimir Putin, is located.

Neighbours Latvia and Lithuania warned people to seek shelter against the threats of unidentified drones entering their airspace via Russia or Belarus, and said Nato air defence fighter jets were activated.

In Ukraine, power went out in part of the central city of Kryvyi Rih, an industrial stronghold and hometown of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, after a drone attack, an official said on Telegram.

The attacks come as the US attempts a new peace push at the first Russia-Ukraine talks in nine months in Abu Dhabi, set to continue on Wednesday.