Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that Kiev struck key Russian facilities in overnight attacks, including the St Petersburg Oil Terminal, as officials gathered for a flagship economic forum in St Petersburg.
The facility is located about 1,100 kilometres from Ukraine’s border, Zelenskyy wrote on X, highlighting Kiev’s long-range strike capabilities. He said Ukrainian forces also hit military targets at Russia's Kronstadt base.
Another target was a weapons-production enterprise in Russia's Tambov region, nearly 600 kilometres from the front line, he added.
Meanwhile Russia’s St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said on Telegram that infrastructure facilities in the Kronstadt, Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts were targeted by Ukrainian drones in the early morning.
He said several facilities were damaged, but did not specify which ones.
"Cleanup efforts are currently under way. Several people were injured. There were no fatalities," he said.
The incident came ahead of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, set to run from June 3-6 and expected to attract 20,000 participants from 100 countries. The event was once Russia's premier gathering to court Western investors and businesses.
The attacks forced Saint Petersburg's main airport to close for hours overnight.
Ukrainian officials said the attack was aimed at disrupting the three-day gathering, which President Vladimir Putin will attend and make a keynote address at on Friday.
"The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes," Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister wrote on social media, posting a video of delegates walking to the venue with smoke visible in the background.
On Monday, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces struck 15 Russian oil refineries between January and May and claimed that nearly 40 percent of Russia's primary oil refining capacity was offline as of May.
