As of: January 24, 2024, 2:00 p.m
By: Patrick Mayer
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Pictures are making the rounds of how the Russian armed forces are supposedly positioning anti-aircraft systems around the metropolis of St. Petersburg.
Vladimir Putin was born here.
St. Petersburg – Until now, the war in Ukraine seemed far away in St. Petersburg.
With around five million inhabitants, the former tsarist city is the second metropolis in Russia after Moscow (an estimated twelve million inhabitants).
After Ukrainian drone attack: Russians place S-300 around Saint Petersburg
As a regularly updated map from the independent Russian research portal
Mediazona
shows, the number of soldiers killed in the surrounding Leningrad Oblast is probably lower than, for example, in the Samara and Volgograd regions or in the southern republic of Bashkortostan.
Presumably the citizens of the comparatively sophisticated and wealthy St. Petersburg should not be too confronted with the devastating losses in Ukraine.
That probably changed on the night of January 18th to 19th, when at least one Ukrainian kamikaze drone attacked the region, according to information from Kiev.
The independent Russian channel Astra has now published a video on Telegram that is intended to show how Russian forces are deploying S-300 anti-aircraft systems around Saint Petersburg.
The location and time of the recordings cannot be verified; at least it is the dead of winter.
Ukrainian military blogger Igor Sushko, among others, shared the video on X (formerly Twitter), which apparently came from a driver and shows two S-300 air defense systems.
As Sushko writes, a Ukrainian drone is said to have previously crashed into a fuel depot in the port of Ust-Luga.
The information cannot be independently verified.
Ust-Luga is located around 100 kilometers west of the city center of St. Petersburg on the Baltic Sea.
The small port town is also just under 27 kilometers from the border with Estonia, i.e. NATO territory.
Drone attack on Russian Leningrad Oblast: Ukraine confirms attack
At a public discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Ukrainian Minister of Industry confirmed a corresponding attack near St. Petersburg.
“Yes, this night we hit a target, and this weapon flew exactly 1,250 kilometers,” Oleksandr Kamyshin explained.
Striking: Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin was born on October 7, 1952 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg.
Between 1992 and 1996, the former KGB officer Putin was the city's deputy mayor.
Whose safety does he now fear?
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The American news magazine
Newsweek
translated the driver from the video.
“Looks like they’re putting S-300s all over the St. Petersburg region.
“So guys, we are preparing for the worst,” the man is said to have said.
According to the independent opposition
Moscow Times,
the airport in the metropolis of millions was closed during the attack.
Russian authorities had at least claimed to have intercepted three drones in the region.
Moscow ruler: Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin was born in Saint Petersburg.
© IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Because of Ukraine drones: Russia is probably setting up anti-aircraft defenses near Saint Petersburg
With the S-300 P?
The anti-aircraft missile system usually has four guided missile containers for four large anti-aircraft missiles.
This means: A maximum of four potential targets can be fought one after the other or in parallel with great effort.
The catch: The S-300 P air defense system (first put into service in 1979) was designed to combat fighter aircraft when it was developed.
With a range of an estimated 200 kilometers and a service ceiling of 27 kilometers.
The vertical guided missile launchers are at least 7.25 meters high.
The 5W55K anti-aircraft missiles used are likely to be correspondingly large, about which very little is publicly known.
It is not known whether the guided missiles are capable of combating comparatively small and low-flying drones.
(pm)