{"id":131839,"date":"2026-06-04T11:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T17:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/putin-says-russia-will-bolster-its-air-defenses-in-response-to-ukrainian-drone-attacks-2\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T12:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T18:02:22","slug":"putin-says-russia-will-bolster-its-air-defenses-in-response-to-ukrainian-drone-attacks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/putin-says-russia-will-bolster-its-air-defenses-in-response-to-ukrainian-drone-attacks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Putin says Russia will bolster its air defenses in response to Ukrainian drone attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People
People walk past a screen with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin at an exhibition at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, June 4, 2026. (Anatoly Maltsev\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span>(Anatoly Maltsev\/Pool Photo via AP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) \u2014 President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia will strengthen its air defenses to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks, which have reached deep inside his country.<\/p>\n

Speaking in response to a question from The Associated Press during a meeting with heads of international news agencies, Putin acknowledged the damage from Ukrainian drone attacks, and vowed to bolster its air defenses to respond to them.<\/p>\n

Hours before the opening of an international economic forum in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone attack set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and also hit a naval base just outside Putin\u2019s hometown.<\/p>\n

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP\u2019s earlier story follows below.<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) \u2014 A massive black cloud rising above the St. Petersburg skyline from a Ukrainian drone strike<\/a> set a gloomy tone for the opening of President Vladimir Putin’s annual showcase of Russia’s economic achievements.<\/p>\n

With Putin set to arrive Thursday in his hometown<\/a> that is hosting the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the Ukrainian attack a day earlier that set an oil terminal ablaze was another embarrassing blow to his efforts to minimize the impact of the 4-year-old conflict<\/a> and cast it as a distant event with no effect on Russian daily life.<\/p>\n

The attack, which also targeted a naval base near Russia’s second-largest city on the Gulf of Finland, underlined Ukraine\u2019s growing capability to hit deep inside its neighbor and demonstrated that even the heavily protected city where Putin was born is increasingly vulnerable.<\/p>\n

Scores of flights were delayed or diverted at St. Petersburg\u2019s airport and authorities cut cellphone internet service to try to prevent drone attacks.<\/p>\n

Putin had scaled down<\/a> Russia’s annual Victory Day parade on May 9, fearing Ukrainian drone strikes. Days later, a massive drone attack on Moscow\u2019s suburbs killed three and showed the capital\u2019s vulnerability.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s forces were pressing inside Ukraine \u201cin order to prevent such attacks\u201d like the one on St. Petersburg. He noted that \u201csystematic\u201d strikes on Kyiv that Russia threatened last week are underway.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Russia hit Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing 23 and wounding 151 others.<\/p>\n

Putin has used the forum to showcase his country’s economic advances and encourage foreign investment. Often styled as the Russian version of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland,<\/a> it usually draws tens of thousands of delegates from around the world.<\/p>\n

While Western officials and business people have stayed away from the forum after Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, Russia has sought to attract more guests from other regions to underline its declared goal of promoting a “multipolar world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saudi Arabia, which is a special guest this year, has sent a large delegation. The presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania and China\u2019s vice president also are attending. A U.S. official, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, will attend the event for the first time in years.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s economic outlook has clouded as the initial boost from massive military spending has fizzled. The government has raised taxes and increased domestic borrowing to keep its budget deficit under control.<\/p>\n

Putin is expected to minimize Russia\u2019s economic problems during his forum appearance, but the Ukrainian attack on St. Petersburg’s port about 15 kilometers (about 9 miles) from the forum\u2019s venue have underlined the growing challenges posed by the conflict.<\/p>\n

Hours before the forum opened Wednesday, Ukrainian drones also hit the Kronstadt naval base on an island in the Gulf of Finland, the home of Russia\u2019s Baltic Fleet since Peter the Great founded St. Petersburg. While most of the fleet has moved to Russia\u2019s Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, Kronstadt retains its symbolic importance as the seat of the country’s naval glory, with its historic cathedral and old fortifications.<\/p>\n

\"A
A plume of black smoke is seen over the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Ukrainian drone attack. (AP Photo)<\/span>(AP Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A plumes of black smoke is seen over the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2026, after a Ukrainian drone attack. (AP Photo)<\/span>(AP Photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

walk past a screen with an image of Russian President Vladimir Putin at an exhibition at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday, June 4, 2026. (Anatoly Maltsev\/Pool Photo via AP)(Anatoly Maltsev\/Pool Photo via AP) ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) \u2014 President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia will strengthen its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-131839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131845,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131839\/revisions\/131845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131839"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=131839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}