Overview
- President Vladimir Putin attended a pared‑back ceremony at the Admiralty this week where sailors received awards and large posters of warships replaced an on‑water parade.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov cited the 'general atmosphere' and security reasons for the cancellation after recent strikes on St. Petersburg.
- Local reports say drones hit a warehouse in the Leningrad region in the nights before the event, causing a major fire, injuring three people, and briefly halting Pulkovo airport operations.
- Ukrainian forces have said they massively expanded long‑range drone missions this year, reporting a more than tenfold rise and about 2,350 missions in June, a pace that has strained Russian air defenses.
- The visible decline from full 2023 fleet parades to consecutive cancellations reflects a shift to symbolic indoor displays and has led to defensive measures such as mobile‑internet cuts and concentrated air defenses that disrupt daily life.