Accusations and Responses

Russia has claimed the strike was carried out by a Ukrainian drone, though When asked by the BBC, Ukraine’s general staff said it did not comment on statements made by the aggressor state.

In a Ukraine-held part of the Donetsk region, three people were killed and one injured in Russian shelling of the city of Kramatorsk, according to local official Vadym Filashkin.

Attack in St Petersburg Region

The attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hometown, thousands of kilometers from Ukraine’s border, comes as St Petersburg hosts the annual International Economic Forum; Putin is due to speak at the event on Friday. Russian investigators have opened a criminal case into what they described as a “terrorist attack” on civilians.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokesperson for the Russian Investigative Committee, said authorities were working to establish the identities of those responsible for the strike, as Fifty-three people had been registered to travel on the bus, according to Russia’s state-run media, though none of the victims’ identities have been released yet.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian government’s centre for combating disinformation, criticized Russian state propaganda for creating a “parallel reality”, and he stated that Russia attacks civilians with drones all the time and that they use propaganda to justify their actions.

Drone Incidents and Responses

Drones were downed over Belgorod. Kursk, and other western regions, as well as near Moscow and over the Sea of Azov, according to Russian officials — In total, Russia says it shot down 350 Ukrainian drones overnight. At least 50 of those were downed over the Leningrad region north-west of Moscow, according to regional governor Alexander Drozdenko, while St Petersburg is the capital of the region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on X about the strikes, describing them as “long-range sanctions” and stating that Ukrainian forces also hit military targets in Russia’s Tambov region. These overnight strikes saw St Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport temporarily restrict flights, according to Russian aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia.

Earlier, an 86-year-old woman was killed following a drone attack in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region overnight, according to Yaroslav Shanko, head of the city’s military administration. This came as part of a wider attack by Moscow overnight, with Ukraine’s air force saying Russia launched 198 drones at several different regions, 189 of which were shot down.

The latest wave of strikes comes a day after Russia launched one of its largest attacks on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion began in 2022. At least 22 people were killed after Russia launched more than 700 missiles and drones overnight into Tuesday, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia’s defence ministry said the strikes had been a response to previous Ukrainian attacks, stating that the “strike objectives” had all been achieved.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday it was carrying out the “systematic strikes” it had pledged after accusing Kyiv of a deadly attack on a student dormitory in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine in late May. Kyiv said it had hit a Russian military unit. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the practice would continue, claiming the strikes were targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure.