Drones over Russia's 'showcase': strikes on St. Petersburg and Kronstadt during SPIEF opening

Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles attacked an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and facilities of the Kronstadt Naval Plant on the night of June 4, with Ukrainian military claiming to have hit the corvette Boyky — all occurring on the eve and during the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

On the night of June 4, Ukrainian drones struck St. Petersburg and Kronstadt in the midst of the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal and facilities of JSC Kronstadt Naval Plant, which services ships and submarines of the Russian Navy, came under fire. The strike on the oil terminal was confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov reported that four people were injured as a result of the attack.

The most resonant episode of the attack was the damage to the corvette Boyky, which was in the Alekseyevsky dry dock of the Kronstadt Naval Plant. The Security Service of Ukraine reported the ship's damage, with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine clarifying that "according to preliminary information, ships and infrastructure facilities were hit in the port of Kronstadt." Satellite images from Planet Labs taken on June 3 recorded traces of fire in the dock. Russian military Telegram channels, among others, confirmed that the damaged ship was indeed the Boyky. According to available information, this corvette was used to escort vessels of the so-called shadow fleet.

The opening of SPIEF under these circumstances took on a distinctly symbolic character. Forum participants with badges walked to the opening ceremony against the backdrop of columns of black smoke over the city. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax that the drone attacks did not affect the president's schedule in the northern capital. At a meeting with heads of international news agencies as part of the forum, AP journalist James Jordan reminded Putin of the strikes — he responded by stating that "there is no place where there is no Russian military offensive," and listed data on allegedly captured Ukrainian territories. Putin declined to answer questions about declining ratings and the state of the Russian economy. Russian state media presented the attacks as limited in scale, claiming that air defense forces shot down 272 drones that night — while independent sources documented actual damage to infrastructure and military facilities.

The international context of the attack proved equally remarkable. Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen stated in an interview with a local publication that the country was prepared to shoot down Ukrainian drones had they violated Finnish airspace on their way to St. Petersburg. SPIEF, once positioned as Russia's main platform for dialogue with Western business, is increasingly losing this status: according to journalists' observations, the forum is seeing more prominent attendance by marginal guests, while questions of economic development are increasingly being displaced by military rhetoric.