Ukraine Strikes St. Petersburg on First Day of a Marquee Putin Event

As an annual economic conference was set to begin, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine had targeted a navy base and an oil terminal in the region that includes Russia’s second-largest city.

Smoke rising from the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday. Ukraine has been expanding a campaign of long-range strikes aimed at inflicting economic damage on Russia.Credit...Associated Press

By Ivan Nechepurenko and Andrew E. Kramer

Ivan Nechepurenko reported from St. Petersburg, Russia, and Andrew E. Kramer from Kyiv, Ukraine.

June 3, 2026  Updated 8:30 a.m. ET 

Ukrainian drones on Wednesday attacked St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on the opening day of an annual economic conference that President Vladimir V. Putin has tried to cultivate into a showcase of a modern and prosperous country.

It was the second time in a month that Ukraine had struck a major Russian city before an event important to Mr. Putin, as Kyiv expands a campaign of long-range strikes aimed at inflicting economic damage on Russia and demonstrating its vulnerability to attacks.

In early May, Ukrainian forces hit sites in Moscow, including a high-rise apartment building near the city center, days before the annual Victory Day parade, the most important event on the Kremlin’s calendar. A truncated version of the parade was later held after Ukraine mockingly said it would “permit” Russia to hold the event.

On Wednesday, drones hit infrastructure facilities in three districts of St. Petersburg, causing damage and injuring several people, Aleksandr Beglov, the city’s governor, said in a statement. Nearly 60 drones were shot down in the Leningrad region, which surrounds the city, Aleksandr Drozdenko, the region’s governor, said.

St. Petersburg’s main airport, Pulkovo, suspended operations for almost five hours, according to Rosaviatsia, the Russian aviation authority. Early in the morning, the city’s residents reported smoke in the sky, as well as roaring noises and bangs, according to Fontanka, a local news website.

The drone strike came as the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum was set to open.Credit...Anastasia Barashkova/Reuters

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Wednesday that his country’s forces had attacked the St. Petersburg oil terminal and military targets at a navy base in Kronstadt, on an island near the city.

Mr. Zelensky posted what he said was a video of the strikes, which showed oil tanks being hit and black smoke billowing from a seashore oil terminal. A skyscraper that is the headquarters of Gazprom, a giant Russian gas company, stood on the other shore of the bay in the background. The video could not be independently verified.

Early on Wednesday afternoon, a giant plume of smoke emanating from the oil terminal area was clearly visible from the expressway that traverses the city on its western edge, near the Baltic Sea.

Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said that Russia’s response to the strikes would be “systematic in nature,” adding that the Russian government would continue the war against Ukraine “in order to for these strikes not to happen.” 

The strike did not seem to affect the conference itself, with its usual crowds of Russian government officials, business leaders and journalists mingling around showy pavilions erected by Russian companies at great expense. The government and business officials paid a flat fee of $107 for lunch, an exorbitant sum by Russian standards, though journalists ate free. 

Still, in Ukraine, the owner of a major drone company and the head of the military’s unmanned systems forces posted messages online seeming to taunt Mr. Putin about the strikes on St. Petersburg, the Russian leader’s hometown.

Denys Shtilerman, the owner of the Ukrainian drone company Fire Point, posted videos appearing to show one of the company’s drones buzzing off the Gulf of Finland toward a waterfront district of St. Petersburg, as well as scenes from social media of Russians filming oil fires from their apartment windows and crying in fear. The videos could not be independently verified.

“This is the largest and most important event in Russia,” Mr. Shtilerman wrote of the economic forum. “Putin gives a speech every year about how Russia is victorious over everyone and becoming more powerful.” Mr. Shtilerman added that attendees could “enjoy the views,” apparently referring to the smoke.

Separately, Maj. Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, posted a video appearing to show a drone striking a warship docked at Kronstadt. 

Major Brovdi, who uses the nickname Madyar, also posted a photograph of a message written on the wing of a drone playing off lyrics by a prominent St. Petersburg rock band, Leningrad, leaving no doubt of the intended target.

In Ukraine, officials have debated whether strikes on oil facilities are more beneficial for their economic or their psychological impact in Russia.

For economic impact, the goal is to reduce flows through Russia’s large pipeline network, which moves oil from fields in Siberia for use in population centers in western Russia or for export via the Black and Baltic Seas. Ultimately, Ukraine is trying to force Russia to shut some production capacity, if the oil has no outlet.

Mr. Zelensky has said that Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign, which he refers to as “long-range sanctions,” has cost Russia $7 billion.

So far, Moscow’s losses have been compensated by a rise in oil prices related to the war in Iran. On Wednesday, the Russian Finance Ministry said the government had received $9.2 billion in revenues from oil and gas exports in May, $2.3 billion above what it had expected before the Persian Gulf crisis. The ministry also said that it expected the government to receive $3 billion in additional oil and gas revenues in June. 

Critics in Ukraine have said that the drones are unlikely anyway to inflict enough damage to seriously dent Russia’s budget, and that the psychological effects are more useful for pushing Russia toward a cease-fire. 

After strikes on oil facilities, fires and plumes of smoke are often visible for miles around and are widely photographed and posted on social media, illustrating that the Russian government cannot protect the sites.

Wednesday’s attacks on St. Petersburg, like the earlier strikes, showed Russia’s continued vulnerability.

For years, Mr. Putin has developed the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum into a marquee gala for Russian and international businesses. During the early years of his rule, the conference, which usually runs for four days and attracts up to 20,000 attendees, was used as a magnet to draw Western investors to Russia.

At the time, multibillion-dollar oil and gas deals were signed, including the agreement to build the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. Chevron, BP, Deutsche Bank and Total sent their chief executives, and international pop stars such as Sting and Robbie Williams were featured at the many lavish parties. 

But the situation changed dramatically after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, turning the forum into a reminder of Russia’s isolation from the West, as well as a showcase of how the country has survived Western sanctions by turning elsewhere for business ties.

This year, Saudi Arabia was announced as the guest of honor, with its delegation headed by the energy minister. Only two world leaders — the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania — will be attending. [JB - emphasis in this section is in the original article]

 

For the first time in years, the American delegation will be headed by a U.S. government official, but he is a relatively obscure one: Rodney Mims Cook Jr., chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts.

Candace Owens, an American right-wing podcaster and commentator, will speak on Thursday at a panel dedicated to “balancing parenthood in a large family with a successful career.”

On the same day that Ukraine hit St. Petersburg, Russian officials said that eight civilians had been killed and 11 injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a passenger bus in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

Denis Pushilin, head of the Russian occupation administration in the Donetsk region, said the bus had been traveling from Moscow to Russian-occupied Crimea when it was hit by a drone.

Footage showed the charred wreckage of a bus with a “Moscow-Simferopol” sign on the windshield. Simferopol is a city in Crimea. The footage could not be independently verified, and the Ukrainian government had no immediate comment on Russia’s assertions.

Ukraine in recent weeks has ramped up drone attacks on a highway that links Crimea and southern Russia and passes through occupied eastern Ukraine.

Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting. 

Ivan Nechepurenko covers Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia. He divides his reporting time between Moscow and Tbilisi, Georgia.

Andrew E. Kramer is the Kyiv bureau chief for The Times, who has been covering the war in Ukraine since 2014. 

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