Ukraine strikes St Petersburg oil terminal, naval base as Putin opens economic forum

ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in St Petersburg and a warship in dry-dock at a nearby naval base, hours before Vladimir Putin’s showcase economic forum got underway in the city, in a clear attempt to embarrass the Kremlin chief.

The attack on Putin’s home city, location of his own ‘Davos’ - a glitzy annual economic forum designed to attract foreign investment - comes as both sides dial up strikes against each other in their more than four-year-old war with no imminent end in sight.

The Kremlin said Russia would keep striking Ukraine systematically in response to such attacks, part of what it has described as a new “paradigm” in the conflict. 

Unspecified “infrastructure objects” had been attacked in three districts of Russia’s second-biggest city and home to over 5 million people, Alexander Beglov, its governor, said. Air defenses shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region, said.

“Several facilities have been damaged. Clean-up operations are currently underway. Several people have been injured. There have been no fatalities,” Beglov said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed his drones had struck the fuel terminal and said they had also targeted a military facility in Kronstadt on an island near the city where elements of Russia’s Baltic Fleet and major shipbuilding and repair facilities are located.

Ukraine released a video which showed a drone striking a Russian warship, the corvette Boiky, in what it said was a dry dock at Kronstadt. Reuters was able to verify the location of the attack and the model of the vessel, but could not independently verify how seriously the ship or the oil terminal had been damaged.

Unconfirmed video posted to social media showed locals filming Ukrainian airplane-style drones as they flew over parts of the city as fires appeared to rage at the export fuel terminal in the background. What sounded like anti-aircraft fire could be heard as one drone flew on unhindered.

Given the importance of the event to Moscow, the Ukrainian attack is likely to raise questions inside Russia about how effective its own air defence capabilities are, a problem that Ukraine is also grappling with. The location of the economic forum itself was heavily protected and there was no suggestion that Ukrainian drones had got close to the venue.

Plume of smoke

A plume of grey smoke was visible from St Petersburg’s historic city center and Reuters correspondents reported hearing loud explosions on Wednesday morning. The same explosions would also have been heard by hundreds of forum guests, some of whom had flown in ahead of the first day of discussion.

Some of the most prominent guests this year are from Saudi Arabia, including Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman.

An eclectic group of Americans, including ex-Hollywood star Steven Seagal and right-wing influencer Candace Owens, are due to attend. Rodney Mims Cook Jr, named by President Donald Trump to head the Commission of Fine Arts overseeing his White House ballroom, is the first serving U.S. official to attend since 2018, according to the Kremlin.

The city’s Pulkovo airport had to temporarily restrict flights, Russia’s aviation watchdog said, and more than 30 flights were delayed or cancelled, local news outlets said. 

The threat of Ukrainian drones last month disrupted another set-piece event - the annual May 9 Red Square military parade in Moscow to mark the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. Russia decided not to display military hardware at the parade for the first time in years citing the Ukrainian threat.

Other regional developments

▪ All members of the European Union agreed to open talks with Ukraine and Moldova on the first cluster of issues in their accession talks, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said early Thursday.

“Fantastic news,” she wrote on X. “We are one step closer to the EU membership: steadily moving towards our goal.”

Cyprus, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said on X that it had starting preparing to formally open negotiations on the first group of negotiating chapters, which cover rule-of-law and democratic standards, with both countries.

“This marks a significant milestone in their European integration path, and sends a strong message of EU unity and determination,” it said.

The presidency said it would work “towards finalizing the discussions” for the formal opening.

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar said his country and Ukraine had reached an agreement on the rights of the 100,000-strong Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

Magyar had previously said that agreement on the long-running dispute was essential if Budapest were to agree to Ukraine joining the EU.

Both Ukraine and Moldova are pressing for membership of the 27-member EU after more than four years of war pitting Kyiv against Moscow.

▪ Ukraine’s largest missile and drone maker, Fire Point, has conducted a flight test of a ballistic missile that will serve as the foundation of a project to create a missile air defense system, the company’s CEO, Iryna Terekh, said on Wednesday.

“Recently, we conducted an extremely important test: a fully controlled maneuvering flight of the FP-7.X missile, which will form the basis of the future Freyja anti-ballistic interceptor,” Terekh wrote on X.

The FP7.X is the interceptor variant of Fire Point’s FP7 ballistic missile, which is currently in development and which the company says will also be able to attack ground targets.

Fire Point’s co-owner Denys Shtilierman told Reuters in April that it was in talks with unnamed European companies to launch a new air defense system capable of downing supersonic ballistic missiles by the end of next year, creating a low-cost alternative to the U.S.-made Patriot.

The missile itself is only one component of an air defense system. Analysts say its most complex parts are the ground radar network and the targeting system in the missile.

Terekh posted a video showing a pink missile being fired from a rail launcher in a field with a pixelated background.

Fire Point, founded after the war began in 2022, now says it makes thousands of long-range drones every month. It also makes the Flamingo cruise missile, which Ukraine has used to hit several important Russian military-industrial sites.

▪ Britain’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday it had summoned Russia’s ambassador after a Russian drone last week struck a residential building in NATO member Romania.

Foreign minister Yvette Cooper has condemned the incident, which occurred during a Russian attack on Ukraine and injured two people in the Romanian city of Galati, and said Britain stood united with allies to defend NATO territory.

“Russia’s latest brutal bombardment of civilians in Ukraine comes afters its violation of NATO airspace last week, hitting a residential building in Romania,” Britain’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Injuring innocent civilians on NATO territory is unacceptable and a stark reminder of the threat that Ukrainian civilians are having to endure on a daily basis.”

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.