Vladimir Putin has visited his home city of St Petersburg to honour the Russian Navy despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns, and the airport being forced to close after a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks on the city.
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See subscription optionsSt Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televise parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed this year's parade had been cancelled.
Putin arrived at the city's historic naval headquarters on Sunday by patrol speed boat, from where he followed drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and Baltic and Caspian Seas.
"Today we are marking this holiday in a working setting, we are inspecting the combat readiness of the fleet," Putin said in a video address.
The Russian Defence Ministry said air defence units downed a total of 291 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones on Sunday, below a record 524 drones downed in attacks on May 7, ahead of Russia's Victory Day parade on May 9.
A man was killed and three other people were injured by drone fragments in the region around St Petersburg, according to local authorities.
St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport was closed during the attack, with 57 flights delayed and 22 diverted to other airports, according to a statement. Pulkovo resumed operations later on Sunday.
Russian blogger Alexander Yunashev, part of an official group of reporters travelling with Peskov, said Peskov had told him their flight from Moscow to St Petersburg had been delayed by the drone attack for two hours on Sunday.
Russia continued to batter Ukraine with drone and missile strikes Sunday.
In Sumy in Ukraine's northeast, a drone attack damaged civil infrastructure objects, an administrative building and non-residential premises, leaving three people wounded. Elsewhere in the region, two men died after being blown up by a landmine and another woman was injured from a drone attack on another community in the region, the regional military administration said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called on Sunday via social media for Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to uphold independent anti-corruption bodies.
Von der Leyen also said in a post on X, made after a call with Zelenskiy, that support would continue for Ukraine on its path to EU membership.
with AP
Australian Associated Press
