 Russian forces defend Putin's palace in Valdai. Leningrad is left defenseless against drones. Russia's air defenses in the city of St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region are stretched thin, as President Vladimir Putin has pulled the majority of his resources to defend his prized residence at Lake Valdai, a Russian telegram channel reported. According to Newsweek, the Vechik-OGPU outlet, which purports to have inside information from Russian security forces, said on Sunday that, according to its source, recent drone attacks on St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region are due to an acute shortage of technical means for detecting small air targets and mobile air defense missile systems capable of shooting them down. Russia's Pantsir S1 air defense systems were deployed to protect a particularly important facility in Valdai. The telegram channel said Ukraine launched a drone attack on January 18 on the St. Petersburg oil terminal. It marked the first time a drone had targeted Putin's home region, Leningrad, since the full-scale war in Ukraine began. One of the drones, launched in that attack, flew over Putin's Valdai residence, RBC Ukraine reported, citing a source in the special services. Putin's residence in Valdai is located in between Russia's Tver and Novograd regions, some 250 miles away from the Kremlin. After the start of the war, almost all of the Pantsirs were sent to protect a strategically important facility in Valdai, where the residence of the President of the Russian Federation is located. Some went to the combat zone and one complex was lost in 2023 due to an accident in the Leningrad region, the Vchik-OGPU outlet said.