Russia Calls Off Annual Navy Day Celebrations Amid Ukrainian Drone Attacks

Some one hundred Ukrainian drones were intercepted by Russian air defenses overnight, which does not suggest a particularly huge attack compared to prior major drone assaults from the last several weeks – but the attack did serve to severely impact annual Russian military observances.

Russia significantly scaled-back its annual Navy Day celebrations on Sunday, citing heightened security concerns amid the intensified and ongoing cross-border drone attacks.

Traditional naval parades were even canceled in key cities including St. Petersburg, the Kaliningrad region on the Baltic Sea, as well as even in the far-eastern port of Vladivostok – which is actually nowhere close to being under threat (other than potential sabotage from operatives within the country).

Illustrative file image: CGTN

President Vladimir Putin visited St. Petersburg to tour naval headquarters, even as drone attacks threatened the city, but surprisingly even the typical naval parade there was called off.

When asked about the cancelations and scaled-down events, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the decision as “linked to the overall situation, for security reasons, which take precedence.”

There was at least one injury from the overnight drone attacks, said to be from falling debris. As has become somewhat the norm, there was a spate of flight cancelations at some Russian airports on Sunday.

Putin is meanwhile vowing an expansion of the navy, both in terms of manpower and vessels – as well as training. “The navy’s strike power and combat readiness will reach a new qualitative level,” he stated.

Throughout the war Russian’s Black Sea naval fleet has particularly suffered. Major warships have at times been damaged or put out of commission, even while docked, due to heavy drone attack, and even being struck by sea drones.

This has resulted in the huge task of actually removing some key Russian vessels from Black Sea ports to the Caspian Sea in order to allow them better protection.

Ukraine is in its drone strategy seeking to inflict ‘death by a thousand cuts’ on Russia, and to disrupt and destabilize daily life inside Russia, in hopes that it would bring down the Putin government.

But by many accounts life is fairly normal in most parts of Russia and major cities. And food and shopping shelves are still well-stocked, and people are often living as if there’s no ‘special military operation’ happening just across the southern border.