Ukrainian drones struck an oil terminal and a naval base in St. Petersburg in the early hours of Wednesday, sending a towering column of black smoke over Russia's second city just as it was preparing to host thousands of international business delegates. The attack — one of the most significant on the city since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — coincided with the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), an annual event that draws heads of state and corporate executives and was once known as "Russia's Davos." Russian authorities said air defences shot down 59 drones over the area, though several reached their targets. There were no reported deaths in the city, but multiple facilities in the Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts sustained damage, and Pulkovo Airport was temporarily closed, disrupting around thirty flights.

President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Ukraine's responsibility, saying drones had flown more than 1,000 kilometres to strike the oil terminal — described as one of the largest hydrocarbon transshipment hubs on the Baltic Sea — as well as military targets at Kronstadt, a fortified island town near St. Petersburg that serves as the main base of Russia's Baltic Fleet. Ukraine's military said it also struck the Russian corvette Boikiy docked at Kronstadt and released footage of the attack, though Russian authorities did not confirm damage to their vessels. Zelensky framed the strikes as a direct response to a massive Russian bombardment just 24 hours earlier, in which Moscow used 73 missiles and more than 650 drones against Kyiv and six other Ukrainian regions, killing at least 22 civilians. "The Ukrainian plan of long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as it is needed to bring peace closer," Zelensky wrote on social media.

The timing was deliberate and pointed. Black smoke from the burning terminal was visible from the SPIEF conference venue as the first sessions began. The forum, running until Saturday under the theme "Pragmatic Dialogue — the Path to a Stable Future," is hosting some 20,000 guests from 130 countries, with President Vladimir Putin scheduled to deliver a keynote address on Friday. For the first time in nearly a decade, a US delegation is attending — a low-key group led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the head of the US Commission of Fine Arts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov vowed Russia would deliver a "systemic" response to the strikes. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, meanwhile, said the attacks revealed "panic on the Russian side," arguing that Putin was escalating strikes on Ukrainian civilians because he was "losing money, men, and momentum."

The broader picture remains deeply troubling on both sides. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned of a "real" and growing risk of escalation, telling Congress that Ukraine had "become increasingly effective at conducting long-range strikes deep into Russia." He also acknowledged that neither side had yet shown willingness to make the concessions needed for peace. Separately on Wednesday, a Ukrainian drone struck a bus travelling through Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine, killing at least seven civilians — an incident Ukrainian authorities did not comment on. In Crimea — the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014 — a Ukrainian strike on the regional capital Simferopol killed three people and wounded seven others, according to Moscow-installed authorities there. The cycle of strikes and counter-strikes underscores the war's intensifying reach, now extending from front-line positions deep into Russian and Ukrainian territory alike.