Ukrainian Drone Strikes Hit Saint Petersburg, Kaja Kallas Says Kremlin Panics

Ukrainian drone strikes hit energy and military sites in Saint Petersburg on June 3 as officials gathered for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s flagship economic conference in the city, with EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas telling AFP that the attacks were causing “panic” for the Kremlin.

Kallas said Moscow was lashing out at Kyiv with increased attacks and argued that “It clearly shows also panic on the Russian side – why they are increasing the terrorist attacks that they’re doing in Ukraine is because they don’t know what to do with these things,” in an interview.

ABC News

The Straits Times reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strikes as “fair” retaliation for Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine and threatened to launch more, while Kallas said Ukraine had increased deep strikes against oil facilities.

The same coverage said Ukrainian drones struck Saint Petersburg on June 3 as officials gathered for Putin’s economic conference, and it also referenced that a series of ferocious drone and missile strikes by Russia in recent days killed at least 23 people on June 2.

Kallas tied the drone strikes to Russia’s battlefield weakness, saying “He’s clearly terrorising more to create fear, and because he’s on a back foot in the battlefield,” while also arguing that the Kremlin had not broken the resilience of Ukrainians.

She said the EU was readying a new round of sanctions against Moscow, with a key part aimed at keeping Russia’s oil revenues down despite a spike in energy prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran.

Al Jazeera

In Brussels, Kallas said the proposed package had “a very clear goal in mind targeting the military industry, targeting the financial institutions, so that they can’t raise capital to finance this war”, and she added that the EU also needed to increase support to Ukraine because “these attacks are atrocious.”

The Straits Times also reported that as US-brokered talks to end the fighting in Ukraine have stalled, Kallas repeated that the EU could not act as a neutral “mediator” between the two sides given its staunch backing for Kyiv.

Zelensky’s response to the Saint Petersburg strikes was framed as retaliation, with the Straits Times reporting he threatened to launch more after describing the attacks as “fair” retaliation for Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine.

The Straits Times said Kallas argued that Putin was losing money, men, and momentum and that this was why Moscow was increasing attacks on civilians, while she also said she doubted the Kremlin could break Ukrainian resilience with these attacks.

As the EU works on sanctions, the Straits Times reported that Kallas said the most important goal was to “push them to talk to the Ukrainians, so that they also make concessions that make Europe secure,” linking the drone strikes to stalled negotiations.

The same reporting placed the attacks in the context of Russia’s recent strikes on Ukraine, noting that the Russian leader had unleashed a series of ferocious drone and missile strikes in recent days, killing at least 23 people on June 2.