Ukrainian drones strike St Petersburg oil terminal as Putin's economic forum opens

Zelenskyy claims strikes on fuel and military sites

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the strikes had hit facilities more than 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine. In a statement, he wrote: "Important facilities on Russian territory were hit last night. Among them was the Petersburg Oil Terminal. The distance from Ukraine is about 1,100 kilometers. Purely military targets at the Kronstadt base were also hit." Zelensky later posted a video of an oil depot ablaze on social media and described the operation as part of Ukraine's strategy of "long-range sanctions." In separate remarks, he added: "Ukraine's plan for long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer."

Russia's Defense Ministry said air defenses had downed 354 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions. Beyond St Petersburg, Ukrainian drones struck a manufacturing plant involved in weapon production in Russia's Tambov region, around 600 kilometers from the border, and hit the Kronstadt naval base, a historic home of Russia's Baltic Fleet. The base is located on Kotlin Island in the Gulf of Finland.

Forum opens under shadow of war

The timing of the attack appeared aimed at embarrassing Moscow on the opening day of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an annual gathering that the Kremlin uses to project strength and argue that Russia is not globally isolated. Around 20,000 guests from some 130 countries were expected to attend the three-day event, which runs Wednesday through Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to deliver a speech on Friday. Dozens of Russian officials, Gulf business figures and representatives from Brazil and Germany were among the anticipated attendees, and Saudi Arabia is attending as a special guest country with a large business delegation.

The St Petersburg forum was once Russia's premier venue for courting Western investors and multinational companies, but its profile has shifted dramatically since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Western governments and major companies have largely stayed away, leaving the event dominated by delegations from countries that have continued to engage with Moscow.

Casualties mount on both sides

The drone strikes came a day after Russian forces unleashed a massive drone and missile attack on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Ukrainian officials said at least 22 civilians were killed and 138 wounded in the barrage. Ukraine's air force reported that Russia fired 198 long-range drones overnight, of which 189 were neutralized by air defenses. The cross-border exchanges highlighted the continuing intensity of the war, which has now stretched into its fifth year.

Casualties from the latest round of fighting were reported on both sides. In the Russia-controlled part of Ukraine's Donetsk region, a Ukrainian strike hit a bus traveling from Moscow to Crimea, killing seven people and injuring 11, according to Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-appointed head of Donetsk. In Russia's Smolensk region, two firefighters were killed by a Ukrainian drone attack, regional governor Vasily Anokhin said, and two other firefighters and a local resident were injured.

In Ukraine, the human toll from Russian shelling continued to mount. In the northern Sumy region, one civilian was killed and 15 others injured, including three children, by Russian strikes over the previous 24 hours. In the southern Kherson region, Russian overnight shelling and drone strikes killed an 86-year-old woman and wounded five other people.

The attacks underscored the increasingly long reach of Ukraine's drone fleet, which has been developed and produced domestically and is used to strike military-industrial and energy targets far behind the front lines. Russian officials have accused Ukraine of using such strikes to try to demoralize the Russian population and pressure the Kremlin, accusations Kyiv rejects while continuing to frame the operations as legitimate retaliation against infrastructure it says supports Moscow's war effort.

There was no immediate indication of a change to the forum's schedule. The St Petersburg International Economic Forum was proceeding with its opening sessions on Wednesday, although heightened security was visible around the venue. The juxtaposition of a major international economic gathering with a military strike on a fuel depot just across the city set the tone for an event that is meant to showcase Russia's resilience and global relevance.