Ukraine Strikes St Peterburg as ‘Putin's Davos' Kicks Off
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in Vladimir Putin’s home city has started under the shadow of Ukrainian drone strikes on a nearby oil terminal.
The annual business event described as "Putin's Davos" in reference to the International Economic Forum will host around 20,000 guests from 130 countries.
But the event where Putin likes to showcase his diplomatic clout began as a cloud of black smoke poured out from an oil terminal and naval hub following the latest Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure.
Oil Terminal Targeted
The Russian president is due to appear on Friday at the forum whose attendees include chairman of the US Commission of Fine Arts, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., who helped approved the plan for a large new ballroom extension to the White House.
Long-range drones crashed into oil storage facilities causing loud explosions and black smoke to rise high above Russia’s second city from the blazing oil terminal.
The oil terminal is on the Gulf of Finland at the city’s Great Port of St. Petersburg and is one of Russia’s largest fuel storage and export facilities with a reported throughput of 12.5 million tons per year.
Ukraine’s Security Service of Ukraine, Unmanned Systems Forces, Special Operations Forces and Defense Intelligence were behind the strikes, the Kyiv Independent reported.
‘Long-range Sanctions’
Russian authorities said air defenses downed 59 drones overnight and that three districts of St Petersburg had been hit, although no one was killed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “our responses will be systemic in nature.”
Mobile internet was disrupted and St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport was temporarily closed.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike was the latest example of Ukraine's "long-range sanctions" and that the oil trans-shipment facility was around 680 miles from Ukraine's border. Ukraine also struck the Kronstadt naval base and shipyard in Leningrad oblast, in the wider region which hosts Russia's Baltic fleet.
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Russian missile and drone strikes in Ukraine
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‘Terrorizing Civilians’
Kyiv’s officials reveled in the attacks, such as Serhii Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defense minister who posted on X that the forum in St Petersburg “is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes.”
Ukraine has stepped up its drone strikes deep inside Russia. Moscow in turn carried out one of its biggest drone and missile strikes of the war on Tuesday, which analysts have linked to Moscow’s diminishing returns on the battlefield. At least 21 people died overnight Monday in strikes on Kyiv and Dnipro.
Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope for Ukraine, said that the increasing Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure were because Moscow was unable to secure gains on the battlefield.
“This pattern of terrorizing civilians serves as a stark metric of military frustration, demonstrating that Moscow is increasingly substituting battlefield efficacy with brute, retaliatory violence against the innocent,” he told Newsweek.
Who Is Attending the St Petersburg Forum?
The attendance of Rodney Mims Cook from the U.S. Fine Arts Commission marks the first appearance at the event by a U.S. official for years, although he is not believed to part of an official government delegation.
Cook became chair of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in January 2026 and has worked with the World Monuments Fund as a Russia specialist, having served as an expert on the restoration of the Resurrection Cathedral at the New Jerusalem Monastery in Russia.
Other attendees include politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) such as Markus Frohnmaier and Steffen Kotré. Russia has also invited far-right figures from the west, such as podcaster Candace Owens.
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, whom Putin said he wanted as Europe's envoy for talks with Russia, and far-right influencer Andrew Tate, have also been spotted in Moscow this week, though it was unclear whether they would attend.
The presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Samia Suluhu Hassan will speak alongside Putin on Friday according to reports. The Chinese vice-president Han Zheng and Saudi oil minister Abdulaziz bin Salman al-Saud will also appear.
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This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 9:36 AM.