Ukrainian drone strikes deep inside Russia are causing “panic” for the Kremlin, EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas told AFP, saying Moscow was lashing out at Kyiv with increased attacks.
“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,” Kallas said in an interview.
“Ukraine has really increased the deep strikes against the oil facilities, because oil is something that is funding the war in Ukraine,” Kallas said. “We see at the same time that Putin is losing money, men, and momentum, and that’s why he’s increasing attacks on civilians.”
“He’s clearly terrorizing more to create fear, and because he’s on the back foot in the battlefield,” Kallas said. “But I think they haven’t been able to break the resilience of Ukrainians so far, and I doubt that they’re going to do this with these attacks.”
Kallas said a key part of the proposed package was aimed at trying to keep Russia’s oil revenues down despite a spike in energy prices caused by the US-Israeli war on Iran. We have “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”, she said.
“At the same time, we also need to increase support to Ukraine, so that they can defend themselves, because these attacks are atrocious.” As US-brokered talks to end the fighting in Ukraine have stalled, calls have grown for the EU to play a greater role in efforts to try to halt the war. Kallas repeated her insistence that the EU could not act as a neutral “mediator” between the two sides, given its staunch backing for Kyiv.
“Clearly, the war in Iran and the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz is taking the attention of the Americans, but I think more important so far we haven’t seen the willingness from the Russian side to actually negotiate,” she said. “That’s the most important, how we can push them to talk to the Ukrainians, so that they also make concessions that make Europe secure.”
Ukrainian Drones Hit Saint Petersburg
Earlier, Ukrainian drones hit energy and military sites in Saint Petersburg as officials gathered for a flagship economic forum in the city, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the strikes as “fair” retaliation for Russia’s bombardment of Ukraine and threatened to launch more. Some 20,000 people from 130 countries were to attend the three-day annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) — an event once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” — which began Wednesday.
The Kremlin vowed to respond to the strikes, which came a day after a barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed 23 people across Ukraine.
The attacks on Saint Petersburg damaged “several” infrastructure facilities, the city’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said.”Several people were injured. There were no fatalities,” he said. Ukraine said it had hit the Saint Petersburg Oil Terminal and the city’s Kronstadt military base.
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces said a Russian warship was hit at the Kronstadt naval base, posting black-and-white footage from the drone of what he said was the attack.
Saint Petersburg’s main airport closed for hours overnight, while several flights from Moscow to the northern capital were delayed.
Ukrainian officials said the attack was aimed at disrupting the SPIEF forum, where President Vladimir Putin will make a keynote address on Friday.
“The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes,” said Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister.
Smoke was visible from the conference venue as delegates gathered for the first sessions.
During a press conference in Kyiv with NATO chief Mark Rutte, Zelensky said Ukraine was responding “accordingly” to deadly Russian bombardment. “It’s just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses,” Zelensky said.
Rutte said Ukraine was showing success in taking out “some of the key capabilities and capacities of the Russians”.
Russian strikes on frontline regions of Ukraine killed four people earlier in the day, officials said.
Since Russia launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022, SPIEF — previously Moscow’s premier economic event for courting Western investment — has been seen as a snapshot of Russia’s isolation on the world stage.
French President Emmanuel Macron, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were among those who addressed the forum alongside Putin.
Now, Russia can only rely on its closest allies to attend. This year, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania will be present, alongside ministers from Cuba, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
The Kremlin’s economy envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the forum was a gathering of “sovereign countries”, slamming “globalist” rivals like the annual Davos gathering in Switzerland.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres — who on Tuesday condemned Russian strikes on Ukraine — will speak at a panel on the environment on Friday.
The United States is sending Rodney Mims Cook Jr, head of the US Commission of Fine Arts who is overseeing President Donald Trump’s new White House ballroom, to the event. He will speak on a panel titled “Russia–US: A Cultural Dialogue”.
Several fringe figures from Western countries have also been invited — including right-wing commentator Candace Owens, Putin-backing US actor Steven Seagal, and representatives of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Andrew Tate, the British-American self-described misogynist charged in Romania with human trafficking and accused of rape, landed in Moscow on Tuesday, triggering speculation he would attend the forum.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov vowed Russia would respond to Ukraine’s attack. “Our responses will be systemic in nature,” he told reporters.
Ukraine has escalated its strikes on Russian energy and military sites in recent months, calling them fair retribution for Russia’s nightly barrages against its cities.
A drone strike on a bus in Russian-occupied east Ukraine killed at least seven people early Wednesday, Russian-installed officials said. Russian strikes killed two people in the southern frontline city of Kherson and two in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said.
By Agence France-Presse
