Ukraine is suspected to have carried out a kamikaze drone attack on Vladimir Putin‘s home city St Petersburg early today.
A video shows the moment the apartment block was hit triggering a giant explosion, say reports.
The drone was suspected to have been aimed at a nearby oil depot. Key defence facilities were also in the vicinity.
‘Half the house was blown away,’ said one resident.
At least 15 apartments were damaged on all five floors of the building on Piskarevsky Avenue in St. Petersburg.
One hundred people were evacuated from the blitzed block, but no casualties were reported.
It was the first attack on St Petersburg in more than one month.
The suspected target in St Petersburg was the Ruchyi oil depot, around half a mile away.
Ukraine has previously hit oil depots in the city and Leningrad region, leading to Russia temporarily halting gasoline exports.
There were unconfirmed reports of a second drone on a night when Russia also hit Odesa, killing two and wounding seven, with six people missing.
The attacks came the day after 128 people in 19 Russian cities were detained as they marked the funeral of Putin foe Alexei Navalny, who was suspected to have been murdered in his Arctic jail on Putin’s orders. Most detainees were freed later.
Mourners in Moscow defied the authorities by chanting demands for Russia without Putin and an end to the war in Ukraine.
Crowds following the hearse in Moscow threw red carnations as it passed and could be heard shouting ‘Putin is a murderer’ and ‘Russia will be free’.
There were also unconfirmed reports that Navalny’s supporters were arrested as they left their homes to attend the funeral.
It is thought that one of those detained during the ceremony was an opposition politician.
The Kremlin had warned that action would be taken against any ‘unauthorised protests’ on the day of Navalny’s funeral, with 400 having been arrested for laying flowers at memorial sites following the outspoken politician’s death two weeks ago.
Riot police, who wore balaclavas, lined the streets around the Russian Orthodox church and police snipers could be spotted on roofs near the scene.
The brief funeral for Alexei Navalny was held two weeks after the president’s biggest critic died in an Arctic prison on February 16.
Pictures showed the opposition leader’s open casket inside a church on the outskirts of the Russian capital, after the coffin was carried past the large crowd of mourners with some holding red flowers.
Under the heavy police presence, a long queue could be seen forming near the church in the southeast of the capital, with reports saying thousands were in attendance.
One person said: ‘I feel this is a funeral for the Russia that might have been.’
As the coffin was carried out of a black hearse and into the church, loud chants of ‘Navalny, Navalny!’ rang out around the square outside.
The dissident’s parents followed the coffin inside, and were pictured sitting by his open casket. His body could be seen dressed in a suit, covered in flowers.
It left the Russian Orthodox church again at around 12pm GMT – less than an hour after it entered – on its way to be buried at a nearby cemetery.
As the coffin was driven away, video showed people chanted again: ‘Russia without Putin’, ‘Putin is a killer’ and ‘We won’t forget’.
Navalny was finally laid to rest shortly after 1pm GMT.
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Will Stewart
