Russian authorities reported that Ukrainian drones attacked St. Petersburg Sunday. The airport was forced to close for 5 hours during Vladimir Putin's celebration of Russia's Navy Day. This occurred despite the fact that the naval parade had been cancelled earlier due to security reasons.

On Navy Day in St. Petersburg, Putin usually attends a large, televised naval parade, featuring a flotilla consisting of warships, military vessels, and other ships sailing down the Neva River.

According to Russian state television, Russia believed that a Ukrainian plot was hatched to attack the parade in the city.

Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin spokesperson, confirmed Sunday that the parade for this year had been cancelled due to security concerns. This was after initial reports about its cancellation were made in early July.

Putin arrived in the historic naval headquarters of the city on Sunday, arriving by patrol speedboat. He had been following drills that involved more than 150 ships and 15,000 soldiers from the Pacific and Arctic Oceans as well as the Baltic and Caspian Seas.

In a video, Putin stated that "we are celebrating this holiday today in a work setting. We are inspecting combat readiness of our fleet."

The Russian Defence Ministry reported that air defence units shot down 291 Ukrainian fixed-winged drones on Sunday. This is below the record of 524 drones destroyed in an attack on May 7 ahead of Russia’s Victory Day Parade on May 9.

Alexander Drozdenko said that ten drones had been downed in the Leningrad area surrounding St. Petersburg. A woman was injured by falling debris. Drozdenko announced that the attack had been repelled at 0840 GMT Sunday.

A statement said that the Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg was closed due to the attack. 57 flights were delayed, and 22 were diverted to another airport. Pulkovo resumed its operations on Sunday.

The drone attack on Sunday delayed their flight to St. Petersburg by 2 hours, according to Russian blogger Alexander Yunashev. He was part of a group of official reporters traveling with Peskov. (Additional reporting and editing by Alexandra Hudson; Additional reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy)

(source: Reuters)