Russia closed the main airport in St Petersburg today amid fears of a drone attack on Vladimir Putin’s home city.
A source told VChK OGPU Telegram channel: “An unidentified flying object was spotted in the morning 180km [112 miles] from St. Petersburg in the area of one of the military facilities.
“Pulkovo Airport [St Petersburg] was closed on the recommendation of the Ministry of Defence.”
Fighter jets were put up over the city which has not so far faced attack in the war, and is 550 miles from the nearest point of Ukraine.
He said there were at least five Russian military aircraft in the skies en route to intercept the drone. According to local site 112, there are two fighters in the air - the Su-35 and MiG-31.
The mystery object was allegedly seen in the direction of the Gulf of Finland.
Other unconfirmed reports say the object was a "large drone", with local media blaming NATO for the incursion without any evidence.
One journalist says similar drones have been spotted over the North Caucasus and Belogrod.
Russian outlet Baza said aviation authorities have implemented the "Carpet" plan which calls for the landing of all aircraft apart from military or rescue planes. It's usually rolled out when unidentified objects are spotted in Russian airspace.
The call is also used when something crosses the "state border of the Russian federation (RF)" or "when using weapons and military equipment of the RF Armed Forces against the intruder aircraft".
The air warning around St Petersburg led two the closure of airspace in a 125 miles radius of the city’s airport.
The Russian Ministry of Defence later admitted that the chaos was part of a training drill in which fighter jets were deployed in Russia's western airspace.
The incident came amid a huge new hack which interrupted TV and radio stations warning of a missile strike.
Multiple regions across Russia were hit in the second hack of its kind in six days.
Millions were warned to rush to nuclear shelters.
With sirens blaring, viewers and listeners heard a warning saying: “Attention, attention! Everyone immediately go to shelter! Missile attack threat, everyone immediately to shelter!”
The Russian defence ministry then responded: “Attention!! As a result of a hack at servers of radio stations and TV stations in several regions of the country, an air raid alert sounded on air….
“The Russian Ministry of Defence reports that this information is fake!”
Putin was in Moscow today and expected at the Lubyanka in Moscow for a meeting with his FSB counterintelligence service.
Meanwhile in an apparent drone strike, a fire erupted at a Rosneft oil depot in the Krasnodar region.
The strike was at 2am and resulted in loud explosions.
Footage shows the strike which caused two craters and a fire at the oil facility.
A Russia war channel said there had been multiple drone attacks.
"This morning it became clear that overnight Ukrainians have attempted a massive drone attack on Russian territory," it stated.
"The currently known attacks were in Belgorod, Tuapse, St. Petersburg and the Republic of Adygea."
And just last week, there was heightened global scrutiny over spy balloons sent to soar over other countries for espionage purposes.
Last week, images emerged after a pilot flying above the Chinese spy balloon took a dramatic close-up snap of the large white orb a day before the US Air Force shot it down.
The photo shows the top of the pilot's helmet inside the U-2 cockpit with the balloon flying below and it was taken on February 3 as the balloon "hovered over the Central Continental United States", according to the caption provided by the US defence department.
The Pentagon released the image last Wednesday more than two weeks after the balloon made international headlines as it transited over the United States.
The balloon was finally downed on February 4 by an F-22 fighter jet firing a AIM-9X Sidewinder missile.
The strike took place once the balloon was no longer over land, and at sea off the South Carolina coast but still within US territorial waters.
The U-2 Dragon Lady is a high altitude US spy plane that has been in service since the 1950s.
The Pentagon announced last Friday that Navy ships and submersibles had completed recovery of the massive balloon and its payload, which fell in pieces into the Atlantic Ocean.
The payload was recovered from the ocean floor and is being analysed by the FBI, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said.
