Russia claims interception of 146 drones in Leningrad region

What the report says

Russia said its air defenses intercepted 146 drones over the Leningrad region, according to statements cited by Al Jazeera from Russian authorities and state media. Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said the “counter-action” was still underway. The report places the incident in northwest Russia, near the Baltic Sea, and says the region includes the city of St Petersburg and key infrastructure such as ports and refineries.

Al Jazeera also reported that the drone activity followed earlier strikes in the same region, including an attack on the Kirishi oil refinery that Russian and Reuters reporting said killed one woman, and a separate fire in the port area of Ust-Luga. The article said it was not clear where the drones originated. It did not independently verify the Russian claims.

The escalation came as US-mediated Russia-Ukraine talks were taking place in Abu Dhabi, where President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the first day as “constructive and quite substantive,” according to the article. Al Jazeera also noted reports of shelling and drone attacks in Russian-occupied Donetsk and in Kryvyi Rih, as well as warnings from Latvia and Lithuania about unidentified drones near their airspace. The broader context is the continuing cross-border drone war tied to the wider Russia-Ukraine conflict.