A warehouse facility has been hit by drones near Russia’s second-biggest city St Petersburg, its regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said this morning.

He mentioned the attack in a post on his Telegram channel but did not provide the name of the facility.

However, locals took to social media to share videos of the attack and said the warehouse belongs to the logistics giant Wildberries being targeted by Ukraine in the war.

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Ukraine’s former top military commander said there was no prospect of the country joining NATO, an aspiration entrenched in the constitution.

Valery Zaluzhnyi, ⁠now ambassador to Britain, told a meeting of Ukrainian ambassadors that Ukraine in no way met the military standards needed to join the alliance, according to media outlet Evropeiska Pravda.

“I know NATO really well. For about 12 years, I personally worked on making sure we met NATO standards, and every year I heard tales about how we would join NATO any day now,” Evropeiska Pravda quoted him as telling the meeting.

“Unfortunately, ‌we will never actually join.”

Zaluzhnyi said it was ‘impossible with the level of development that the Armed Forces of ‌Ukraine have … to join an organisation guided ‌by World War II doctrines”.

Ukraine needed the technology “already in use in NATO member-states, including anti-missile defence, space capabilities etc”.

The Russian Embassy in Rome on Monday blamed Ukraine for a deadly weekend bombing at a Moscow restaurant, describing it as an attempt to intimidate the Italian community in Russia.

The embassy said “Kyiv terrorists” wanted to “scare the Italians working in Russia and to show them that they too are in the crosshairs and could become the scoundrels’ next victims.”

It said the Saturday night attack on the Balzi Rossi restaurant killed five and injured 19, adding that its Italian chef and his staff were unhurt only thanks to a Russian security guard’s “vigilance and selfless dedication to his professional duty.”

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian authorities.

The National Anti-Terrorism Committee, which coordinates various security agencies, initially reported a lower death toll in a statement issued shortly after the attack. It said the bomb killed three people, including a woman who carried the explosive device into the restaurant, a guard who stopped her, and a guest inside. It said 21 others were injured when the bomb detonated near the restaurant’s entrance.

Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, in a decree published on Monday.

Stefanishyna had been in her job for nearly a year, but her departure had been expected for several weeks.

It coincides with a shake-up in recent weeks ⁠of top officials, including the ​replacement ⁠of the prime minister and defence minister. A reshuffle of Ukraine’s diplomatic ⁠and ambassadorial appointments is also expected.

Ukrainian media outlets said ⁠she had informed the president of her ⁠intention to leave her post last month. The ‌reports referred to ​long-running investigations into ‌alleged irregularities in her asset ​declaration.

Stefanishyna, writing on Facebook, said the decision to leave her post was “my own decision, driven by personal circumstances …” and said she had accomplished much during her time in the post.

“We boosted the supply of American weapons and maintained support right when the political ⁠climate in Washington was changing and not in our favour,” she wrote.

Ukraine’s Suspilne public broadcaster quoted Stefanishyna last week as telling reporters in Washington that Zelensky had not sought her resignation.

Stefanishyna said on Facebook that she would ‌address other questions about her circumstances ​that have arisen in the ‌media.

Ukraine has attacked about a dozen Wildberries sites since July 18 in a bid to disrupt the operations of the company, a linchpin of the consumer economy that is often described as Russia’s answer to Amazon.

Kyiv accused the firm of helping to bolster Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

According to Data Insight analyst Sergei Semko, goods destroyed by strikes on Wildberries warehouses in Moscow and Tambov regions alone were worth up to an estimated $2.9 billion.

Ukrainian officials say that the company’s warehouses and transport network is actively involved in storing or transport goods that ultimately support the Russian military, a claim Moscow denies.

Because Kyiv alleges that the company is part of Russia’s wartime logistics and economic infrastructure, they insist Wildberries’ infrastructure is a legitimate target.

Russia said ​on Monday it was stepping up protection of ships in the Azov-Black Sea basin while also developing alternative cargo routes, in a move that follows a ⁠sharp escalation of attacks at sea by both sides in the war in Ukraine.

The Russian transport ministry said that in response to “the tense situation in the Sea of Azov stemming from hostile ⁠drone attacks on maritime vessels”, ​it ⁠had set up a task force to find new routes and switch cargo flows to other modes ⁠of transport.

“A number of stevedoring companies have already ​expressed their ⁠readiness to handle additional cargo ‌volumes and accelerate shipment rates at their terminals, within the limits of their operational capabilities,” it said in a ‌statement.

Together with the defence ministry, “additional measures ‌are being implemented to ensure navigational safety and to protect maritime vessels in the Azov-Black Sea basin”.

More than 200 firefighters were battling a fire at a warehouse run by Russian online retailer Wildberries east of Moscow following a ⁠Ukrainian drone attack on Monday, as Kyiv’s campaign against the e-commerce giant intensified.

Alexander Avdeyev, the regional governor of Vladimir, said 203 firefighters and 67 pieces of equipment had ⁠been deployed to tackle Monday’s ​blaze, ⁠which measured 100,000 square metres (1.07 million square feet), equivalent to about 14 soccer fields.

Wildberries confirmed ⁠the attack and said all staff had ​been evacuated ⁠and deliveries and shipping ‌orders had been rerouted to other warehouses.

Ukrainian forces have attacked the Saratov ⁠oil refinery in southwestern Russia and ⁠the ​Engels military ⁠air base in ⁠the same ​region, ⁠Kyiv’s military ‌said on Sunday.

In a statement, ‌the General ‌Staff said the strikes ⁠had sparked fires at both facilities. It said its forces had ‌also struck an ​oil ‌depot in ⁠the western ⁠Kaluga region.