The tally from yesterday’s massive wave of Ukrainian drone strikes shows serious damage to Russian military and energy assets more than 1,000 km from the border, with the attack deliberately coinciding with the last day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
The Russian Defense Ministry said air defenses had shot down nearly 400 drones over 16 Russian regions. Despite claims of a high target interception rate, officials and satellite data confirm significant damage to several key sites.
It was one of Ukraine’s largest and most coordinated air operations against Russia’s second-largest city, St. Petersburg. Over the Leningrad region alone, local authorities confirmed the downing of more than 140 drones. Local fires broke out in the Kronstadt port complex and the Kronstadt Marine Plant, responsible for the repair of ships and submarines of the Baltic Fleet.
Warehouses of the 15th arsenal of the Russian Navy in Lebyazhye were hit, and according to local sources, a secondary detonation of ammunition followed. Analyses indicate a likely strike on this key research institute in the Lomonosov region, specializing in the design of torpedoes and underwater weapons.
The authorities introduced temporary restrictions on flights at Pulkovo Airport. In St. Petersburg, serious disruptions to the mobile Internet were recorded, and Governor Alexander Beglov urged residents not to leave their homes, reporting three slightly injured citizens.
In the Krasnodar Territory, the Poltavskaya Oil Base was damaged in Ust-Labinsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and local Russian emergency services confirmed that Ukrainian drones had broken through air defenses 500 km from the front. The strike caused a huge fire of about 5,000 square meters, engulfing the commercial facility, which contains 28 oil product tanks.
In the Tyumen region of Siberia, the Antipinsk oil refinery was hit. Local residents in Tyumen reported a powerful explosion and subsequent fire at the refinery, which has a capacity to process more than 9 million tons of crude oil per year. Russian authorities were quick to claim that the incident was a "technical incident" and not the result of a drone, but independent observers note that Ukraine has recently expanded the range of its drones to similar ranges in the Urals (over 1,700-2,000 km).
In the Belgorod region (village of Borisovka), two civilians were killed in a drone attack. In the Kursk region (village of Goncharovka), a woman died from shrapnel wounds.
The Ukrainian leadership and military departments (SBU, GUR and SSO) announced that the coordinated campaign was deepening economic pressure on Russia, demonstrating the ability to hit targets at critical distances and bypass the recently deployed Pantsir air defense systems on the roofs of major Russian cities.