More than a year after banning the sharing of drone-strike footage, St. Petersburg issues its first fine for such activity
A magistrate in St. Petersburg fined Shakhzodbek Tursunbaev 4,000 rubles for posting a video online showing the aftermath of a drone attack, a spokesperson for the St. Petersburg court system said.
According to the court, Tursunbaev posted the video on the afternoon of July 24 with the caption “Overall, no translation needed…” The court ruled that the post violated the St. Petersburg governor’s ban on distributing photos and videos of the aftermath of drone attacks.
The footage showed the aftermath of a strike on Wildberries warehouses in Shushary (St. Petersburg) and the Utkina Zavod industrial zone (Leningrad region), the Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti said.
The outlet said this is the first such fine issued in St. Petersburg since authorities banned the publication of images showing the aftermath of attacks in January 2025.
In recent months, residents across Russia have regularly been detained for posting videos of the aftermath of drone attacks. Residents in Volgograd and Krasnodar have been detained for posting footage of fires at Wildberries warehouses hit by Ukrainian drones.
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