Putin humiliated as Russian port burns after huge Ukrainian attack during peace talks

Résumé détaillé

Ukrainian drones struck the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, sparking a huge fire that could be seen from NATO state Estonia

Ukrainian drones struck one of Vladimir Putin's key oil-exporting ports, sparking a huge fire that could be seen from NATO member Estonia.

Explosions broke out at the port of Ust-Luga, on the Baltic Sea in Russia's north-west Leningrad region, overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday. The drone strike and its fiery aftermath were visible from the Estonian border, which is at least 15 miles away.

Three workers were injured in the attack and a power station was knocked offline, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said on Telegram. He said 150 drones were shot down over the Leningrad region, which is also home to St Petersburg, Putin's home city.

The attack caused major flight disruption in St Petersburg, while Helsinki imposed temporary restrictions on airspace over the eastern Gulf of Finland.

The Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued warnings about a drone threat. NATO fighter jets were also scrambled in Lithuania after an "unidentified aerial object" was detected.

The attack came just hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first US-brokered talks in nine months on ending the four-and-a-half-year war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the meeting on Tuesday "very productive", while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it was "constructive and quite substantive".

Neither Rubio nor Zelensky attended the talks in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. The session lasted four hours and another is scheduled for a second day on Wednesday.

Zelensky revealed that Russian senior military and intelligence officers at Tuesday's talks had claimed Putin's forces controlled half the territory in the Donetsk region currently held by Ukrainian troops.

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