Residents of St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, were told not to leave their homes after a "large-scale" Ukrainian drone attack targeted the city Saturday morning, local officials said, underscoring Kyiv's growing ability to hit deep inside Russia, reports AP.

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov advised St. Petersburg residents not to go outside and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet service.

Regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said 141 drones were shot down over the surrounding Leningrad region. Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones.

Although no casualties were immediately reported, the renewed attack on St. Petersburg strikes a further embarrassing blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to cast the conflict as a distant event that doesn’t affect Russian daily life.

Saturday's attack follows a Ukrainian drone strike that set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base Wednesday, hours before the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin’s annual showcase for investment.

Speaking at the forum, Putin said Thursday that Russia will strengthen its air defenses to counter recent Ukrainian drone attacks, which have reached deep inside his country and cast a cloud over the event in his hometown of St. Petersburg.

With the front line barely moving as swarms of drones hinder advances, both sides have sought an edge by launching long-range strikes.

In Ukraine, one person was killed and three wounded overnight in the Dnipropetrovsk region, as Russian forces struck three districts nearly 30 times with drones and artillery, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said Saturday.

In Zaporizhzhia, five people sought medical care after a Russian drone strike started a fire at a parking lot, according to regional head Ivan Fedorov.

Russia targeted Ukraine overnight with 272 strike drones, and air defenses shot down 249 of them, the Ukrainian air force said Saturday.

The latest attacks came a day after Putin on Friday rejected a proposal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for a face-to-face meeting on the four-year-old conflict, saying he sees "no point" in it.

Thursday's letter, the first public message Zelenskyy has written directly to Putin since Russia sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, was a sweeping critique of the Russian leader's 26 years in power, as well as some taunts about his age.

END/AP/ASA

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

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