Massive Ukrainian Drone Attack Targets St. Petersburg and Other Regions Ukraine’s drones and Russia’s showcase city are now locked in a grim duet: as St. Petersburg tries to sell itself as an open-for-business hub, the sky keeps filling with smoke and shrapnel instead of investment deals.

Opposition outlets frame the latest barrage as a calculated military operation, not a random terror strike. Ukraine “launched a massive attack on Russian regions” targeting naval infrastructure, research institutes and an oil depot, with some hits claimed up to 1,000 km inside Russia. One early salvo hit the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal on the very day the forum opened, cutting internet, delaying planes and igniting multiple fires.

From inside SPIEF, the contrast was surreal. While outside the city skyline showed “a pillar of smoke from drones in the sky,” inside the ExpoForum, elites talked AI, Chinese cars and robots, and posed by installations featuring the faces of Biden and Zelensky. Another report notes that thousands of foreign guests, including “many” unexpected Western politicians, enjoyed “a beautiful view of the fire at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, hit by Ukrainian drones” as they networked and sought business opportunities in sanctioned Russia.

Regional authorities, by contrast, stress control and continuity. The Leningrad governor reported that 141 drones were shot down, insisting there were no casualties and only “insignificant” damage, even as debris fell across several districts and a fire broke out near Ministry of Defense facilities, prompting partial evacuations. The attack on St. Petersburg and its region was “one of the largest” of the entire war and came on SPIEF’s final day, with residents urged to stay home amid air-defense fire and mobile outages.

The result is a split-screen Russia: a fortress state telling citizens to shelter indoors, and a forum city trying to show it is open, modern and attractive—right up to the moment the next column of smoke appears over the Gulf of Finland.