A plume of grey smoke rose over St. Petersburg early on Wednesday as Russian officials gathered for the city's flagship economic forum, an event President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to attend. Ukrainian drones struck energy and military sites in the port city, according to reports from both Russian and Ukrainian authorities.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X that the Ukrainian military had hit the Petersburg Oil Terminal overnight, roughly 1,100 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. He added that another target was an enterprise in the Tambov region involved in producing Russian weapons.
Alexander Beglov, the governor of St. Petersburg, confirmed on Telegram that several infrastructure facilities were struck in the Kronstadt, Kirovsky, and Krasnoselsky districts. “Cleanup efforts are currently underway. Several people were injured. There were no fatalities,” he wrote.
Bus Attack in Occupied Donetsk
In Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, at least seven people were killed and 11 wounded after a drone struck a passenger bus, Russian authorities said Wednesday. The bus was travelling from Moscow to Simferopol in the Moscow-annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea when it was hit in the Donetsk region.
Denis Pushilin, the head of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, wrote on Telegram: “In Yenakiyevo, a UAV attacked a Moscow–Simferopol coach; according to preliminary reports, seven civilians were killed. A further 11 people sustained injuries of varying severity, and all are receiving the necessary medical care.”
The attack came a day after Russia launched a massive drone and missile barrage targeting Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, killing at least 23 people and wounding 138 others, authorities reported Tuesday evening. Zelenskyy warned in his regular daily address that Moscow was already preparing the next barrage.
Zelenskyy called on Ukraine's allies to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, emphasising that none of its drones or missiles could be produced without components imported from other countries. He stated that Russia remains capable of manufacturing its missiles and weapons due to large-scale schemes to circumvent sanctions.
He also urged Europe to develop its own air defence system, while pressing Washington to supply missiles for Patriot systems, which can intercept Russia's ballistic missiles. Russian forces launched more than 70 missiles and 650 drones against Ukraine overnight on 2 June, with around 100 more drones launched during the day.
While Ukraine's air defence intercepted most of the drones, ballistic missiles pose the greatest threat. The Patriot air defence system remains the only surface-to-air missile system in Ukraine's arsenal capable of countering Moscow's ballistic missile threat. However, the joint US-Israeli war on Iran has depleted a third of the stockpiles of Patriot interceptors, with Gulf states also heavily relying on the system.
The strikes on St. Petersburg underscore Ukraine's growing ability to hit targets deep inside Russian territory, even as the Kremlin projects normalcy at its economic forum. The incident also highlights the ongoing war's toll on civilian infrastructure and the urgent need for European air defence cooperation, as Hungary signals flexibility on Ukraine EU talks and Brussels prepares new Russia sanctions.
