Drones hit St Petersburg port as Putin hosts major economic forum

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Ukraine launched drone attacks on the city of St Petersburg on Wednesday morning, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, hours before the Russian metropolis was set to open its international economic forum.

"Purely military targets at the Kronstadt base were also hit," Zelenskyy posted on X. Kronstadt, an island off St Petersburg, is an important military site and serves as a base for the Russian Baltic Fleet.

Zelenskyy said the various strikes as a result of the joint work of drone units from various branches of the armed forces and the intelligence services had "yielded good results." He stressed that the targets were located almost 1,100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.

According to the head of Ukraine's drone forces, Robert Brovdi, the drones also set fire to the Russian Navy corvette Boikiy (Brisk).

Important forum for Putin

The attacks cast a shadow over the opening of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), which is usually staged as a glamorous event for guests from all over the world.

The event - hosted by President Vladimir Putin - begins on Wednesday and runs until Saturday.

The Russian leadership is expecting business representatives and economic figures from Western countries to attend. Politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country's largest opposition party, are also attending the forum.

Across large parts of the city on the river Neva, residents could see plumes of smoke following the Ukrainian attack. Images and videos circulating online show drones flying in, strikes on oil tanks at the port and huge columns of smoke rising into the sky.

Russian authorities give few details on consequences

Russian authorities had issued an air raid alert overnight.

St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov reported casualties and damage, saying the emergency services were on high alert. "Several buildings have been damaged. Clean-up operations are currently under way," he wrote, without providing details of the damage.

Beglov also wrote that several people had been injured, but stressed there were no fatalities. Drone debris also lightly damaged four detached houses in the surrounding area of the city, according to authorities.

Authorities in St Petersburg had warned residents and visitors of the possibility of drone attacks in a text message.

Air-raid alerts in neighbouring countries

The attack on St Petersburg also triggered air-raid alerts in the neighbouring Baltic states of Estonia and Latvia, as well as in Finland.

Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen told the newspaper Iltalehti that his country had scrambled Hornet aircraft overnight to monitor Finnish airspace.

Häkkänen described it as a "normal maintenance of readiness." No Ukrainian drones had entered Finnish airspace. "We continue to monitor the situation," Häkkänen told the newspaper.

Strikes in other regions

Ukraine also attacked other Russian regions overnight. The Russian military said it had intercepted 354 drones. Despite this, strikes still occurred.

In the western Russian region of Smolensk, the governor reported the deaths of two civil defence workers. Two others were injured.

In the Russian-annexed Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, at least seven people were killed and 11 others injured when a drone struck a bus.

Zelenskyy confirmed a strike on a defence company in the town of Michurinsk in the province of Tambov: "Another target was an enterprise in the Tambov region involved in the production of Russian weapons," he wrote on X. According to media reports, the facility also produces missile technology.

Kremlin says war strategy vindicated

The Kremlin used the drone attack to justify the continuation of the war in Ukraine.

"In general, I can say that we are continuing the special military operation precisely so that such strikes do not occur," spokesman Dmitri Peskov said, according to Russian news agencies. He sidestepped a question about a response to the attacks, saying any direct retaliatory strike would be a matter for the Defence Ministry.

Putin ordered the war against Ukraine more than four years ago. Since then, the Russian military has systematically attacked cities and towns in Ukraine, killing many civilians in the process.

Ukraine has since also moved to launching massive drone attacks on Russian territory. The targets are primarily oil industry facilities as well as military installations.

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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 6:41 AM.