Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, June 3, 2026, and set it on fire, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — striking the Russian city at the same moment it was hosting an annual economic forum that President Vladimir Putin has long promoted.
Zelenskyy confirmed the attack himself. The timing wasn’t accidental; St. Petersburg was in the middle of its high-profile economic gathering, an event Putin uses as a showcase of Russian commerce and influence.
The strike marks one of the more symbolically charged Ukrainian drone operations of the war. St. Petersburg is Putin’s hometown — and a forum weekend, with cameras, foreign delegations, and the trappings of international prestige on display, is a deliberate backdrop for a fire at an oil terminal on the city’s outskirts.
Details on the scale of the blaze, casualties, or how many drones were involved hadn’t been released as of Tuesday morning. Russia’s response to the attack wasn’t immediately available.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian energy infrastructure over the past year, aiming to squeeze revenue that funds Moscow’s military operations. Oil terminals and refineries have been hit repeatedly — though strikes this close to St. Petersburg, and timed to coincide with a major Kremlin-backed event, are rarer.
Whether the forum continued uninterrupted after the strike wasn’t confirmed by available reporting.
Reporting by NPR. Read the original report.
