Smoke rises over St. Petersburg after Ukrainian drone attacks, June 3, 2026 (ABC News)

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Wednesday’s Coverage: Kyiv Strikes St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Before Putin’s Economic Conference

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

Ukraine’s General Staff says forces struck a Russian border patrol vessel in the Sea of Azov overnight.

The Project 10410 “Svetlyak” warship, almost 50 meters in length, was hit near the settlement of Iurkine in Russian-occupied Crimea. Damage is being assessed.

Ukraine also attacked concentrations of Russian weapons and military equipment in the occupied part of the Kharkiv region; a Russian army command post and an ammunition depot in the Donetsk region; and fuel and lubricants storage sites in Crimea and the Zaporizhzhia region.

Inside Russia, a gunpowder plant in the Ryazan region was targeted, sparking a fire covering more than 400 square meters.

The General Staff added that Wednesday’s drone attack on the St. Petersburg oil terminal destroyed one storage tank and damaged six tanks and two technical loading platforms.

UPDATE 1721 GMT:

Andrey Bezrukov, a senior advisor at Russia’s State oil and gas firm Rosneft, says the country will remain in a state of war for the next “couple of decades”.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Bezrukov says Russians must learn to live with war, as the state system and economy is structured not only around development but also around defense.

He that drone strikes reaching any region of the country have become a serious problem for which Russia was unprepared.

UPDATE 1712 GMT:

Russia has recorded its largest drop in fixed capital investment since 2009, according to State statistics service Rosstat.

In the first quarter, the indicator fell by 14.3% year-on-year. It includes construction, procurement of machinery and equipment, modernization, and reconstruction.

Last year investment dropped 2.5%. Economic profits fell 4% last year, and further 26% in the first quarter of 2026.

UPDATE 1101 GMT:

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak has declared a “stable” fuel market, despite reports of gasoline shortages in at least 15 Russian regions.

Novak said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, “The situation is currently stable. Prices at vertically integrated companies and most gas stations are not above inflation.” He did not refer to the shortages.

Earlier this week, restrictions on fuel purchases at gas stations in Russia-occupied Crimea, following Ukrainian strikes on oil facilities, were extended to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Ukraine drones have hit Russian oil refineries 38 times from January to early June. In May, 16 refineries — including 8 of the 10 largest in Russia — were struck.

The Government banned gasoline exports in April, and has restricted the export of jet fuel from June 1.

UPDATE 1046 GMT:

At least 16 civilians have been killed and 86 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 264 of 293 drones fired by Russia. At least 24 UAVs struck 11 locations.

In the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, six people were killed and 26 injured, including a child, in assaults on 53 settlements. Kherson city suffered repeated strikes on residential neighborhoods throughout the day and night.

In the Donetsk region in the east, three residents were killed in Kramatorsk and two in Druzhkivka. Another 11 people were injured across the region.

In the neighboring Kharkiv region, four people were killed and 29 injured.

In the Sumy region in the northeast, one civilian was murdered and 10 wounded.

In the Zaporizhzhia region in the south, one person was killed and four injured. In the neighboring Dnipropetrovsk region, 14 civilians were wounded.

UPDATE 0709 GMT:

Six civilians have been murdered and 26 injured, including a child, by Russian attacks on the Kherson region in southern Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Three apartment buildings, five private homes, an administrative building, a mobile communications tower, and private vehicles were damaged.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Kremlin has been embarrassed by Ukraine’s strikes on oil facilities and a warship in St Petersburg, hours before the opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Long-range drones hit the oil terminal, one of the largest in Russia, setting afire storage facilities. An attack on the nearby Kronstadt naval base and shipyard set afire the guided-missile corvette Boikiy, in dry dock undergoing repairs.

The Kremlin and its supporters have been boasting that 20,000 representatives from more than 130 countries will be at the three-day Forum, where Vladimir Putin is scheduled to make a keynote speech on Friday. Some guests arrived for opening ceremony under the blanket of thick smoke, but others were blocked when St Petersburg’s airport was temporarily closed.

The invitees include former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder; the US polemicist Candace Owens; and the misogynist agitator Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan, who face charges in Romania and the UK related to human trafficking, rape, money laudering, and forming an organized crime group.

Donald Trump has sent an official US delegation led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr., the chair of the US Commission of Fine Arts, who is overseeing the destruction of the White House for Trump’s ballroom. Former Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, a loud Putin supporter who has taken Russian citizenship, is also expected.

Alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Kyiv on Wednesday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said, “Just a day ago, there was a massive attack. We responded accordingly. It’s just a matter of time before we can scale up the intensity of our responses.”

Rutte added, “Russia’s recklessness is not new. But as Ukraine continues to stand strong, to innovate and to make battlefield gains, Russia is increasingly desperate.”

European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas said in an interview that Ukrainian strikes are causing “panic” for the Kremlin: “We see…that Putin is losing money, men, and momentum, and that’s why he’s increasing attacks on civilians.”