St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, came under a large-scale attack by Ukrainian drones on Saturday night. The mayor of the city, Alexandr Beglov, alerted the residents to the situation, who urged them via Telegram to stay at home and not go out into the streets.
06/06/2026 11:40
“On the morning of June 6, St. Petersburg was the target of a large-scale attack by military drones. Air defense is on alert,” Beglov wrote. In another statement, he added: “In accordance with the recommendations of the operational staff, I ask the residents of St. Petersburg to stay in their homes and not go out into the streets.”
At the same time, the city authorities warned of possible mobile internet outages. According to The Moscow Times, access to it was cut off at approximately 03:40 local time, i.e. 02:40 CEST, while problems continued throughout the morning.
The Moscow Times pointed out that the attack came just hours after the Russian leader Vladimir Putin spoke at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. In his speech, among other things, he also talked about the need strengthen Russian air defense.
The situation in the Leningrad region, which St. Petersburg surrounds, commented its governor Alexander Drozdenko. According to him, the Russian air defense faced an unprecedented attack. “Repelling an aerial threat in the Leningrad region. In the course of repelling an unprecedented attack, 144 enemy drones were shot down over the territory of our region,” he said on Telegram.
At the same time, Drozdenko informed that the debris of drones fell in several districts of the region. “The damage is not significant: shrapnel damaged the facades of houses and glass. There are no injuries,” he added.
Telegram channel Astra wrote that Ukrainian drones they probably hit the Research Institute of Marine Thermal Technology. This is a major enterprise that deals with the development of underwater weapons.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Saturday, X announced on the social network that the target of the attack was also the Russian Kronstadt naval base near St. Petersburg, where the Baltic Fleet is based.
“Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometers to the St. Petersburg area – to the ammunition depots of the enemy navy and the base in Kronstadt,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Kronstadt is located on Kotlin Island in the Baltic Sea and is of strategic importance in protecting the sea approaches to St. Petersburg. According to the Astra channel, the Kronstadt Naval Cadet Military Corps could also have been hit in this location. According to the original information, Ukrainian forces hit Kronstadt already on Wednesday night.
The Moscow Times further reported that an oil base with eleven tanks was hit in Petergof, near St. Petersburg.
However, the attacks were not limited to the Leningrad region. According to The Moscow Times, Ukrainian drones also hit an oil warehouse in Ust-Labinsk, Krasnodar Region. A fire broke out on the spot, which spread to an area of approximately five thousand square meters.
These days, St. Petersburg hosted the International Economic Forum, which is perceived as a counterweight to Davos in Switzerland, where the annual meetings of the World Economic Forum are held and which are among the most important economic events of this type. However, European and American business leaders stopped going to St. Petersburg in response to Russian military aggression against Ukraine. The Kremlin says that American and European companies are still interested in SPIEF and that many of them are therefore trying not to talk publicly about their participation.
Russian President Putin attended the forum on Thursday and Friday. Kyiv’s first blow came just before the start of the event on Wednesday. Kyiv made itself known before and after Putin’s arrival. The Ukrainian leadership did not officially explain why the strikes on St. Petersburg and its surroundings stopped for two days. It can be a gesture, but also an attempt to prevent a possible escalation if Russia perceives the strike as aimed at the head of state.
