Putin sees 'no point' in meeting Zelensky to end war

Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's proposal for a face-to-face meeting to end the more than four-year conflict, saying at an economic forum in St. Petersburg on Friday that he sees "no point" in such talks. Putin described Zelensky's open letter, which suggested Russians were tired of the war and that change would follow, as containing "rude remarks" and designed to avoid rather than facilitate negotiations. Zelensky responded that Putin's rejection proves the Kremlin has no intention of ending the war, saying "the Russian side is once again choosing war" and that Russia "must have less money, and there must be more pressure on Russia." The rejection came as Ukraine demonstrated growing capability to strike deep inside Russia, with a "large-scale" drone attack on Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg on Saturday. Governor Alexander Beglov advised residents not to leave their homes as air defenses shot down 376 Ukrainian drones over the city, while 141 drones were downed over the surrounding Leningrad region. The attack followed a strike that set ablaze an oil terminal in the city and hit a nearby naval base on Wednesday, hours before the opening of Putin's annual economic forum. In Ukraine, Russian forces launched 272 strike drones overnight, with air defenses shooting down 249 of them, and one person was killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Separately, a Ukrainian maritime drone exploded at Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta on Friday after Kyiv lost control of four drones, likely due to Russian electronic jamming. More than 1,300 people were evacuated from several Black Sea beaches before evacuation measures were suspended. Romanian President Nicusor Dan said the drone incursion into "Romanian sovereign space is a direct consequence of the war waged by Russia" against Ukraine. Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine, Europe's largest with six reactors, faced renewed tensions after Russia's Rosatom said a Ukrainian drone struck engineers demining an area around the facility during a ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency, injuring at least three people.