Around 3:40 in the morning, Russians in and around St Petersburg began reporting that their mobile internet had stopped working. By the time the night was over, Downdetector had logged approximately 3,000 complaints, and the city’s governor had done something he had not done once since the war began: told people to stay indoors.
The cause was a Ukrainian drone raid overnight between June 5 and 6, 2026. President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drones flew roughly 1,000 kilometers to reach what he called “enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt,” the Baltic Fleet’s main headquarters. Local officials described the scale as unprecedented.
What was hit
The Kyiv Independent put the Kronstadt target as the Russian Navy’s 15th Arsenal in Leningrad Oblast, a depot for missiles and ammunition. An oil depot and an oil terminal in the Leningrad region were also struck. Explosions in the Kronstadt area set off multiple fires.
Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed a fire at a Defense Ministry facility and said evacuations were under way in the Lomonosovsky district. Three people were injured, according to The Public.
Ukraine did not confine the night to one city. A second oil depot, in Ust-Labinsk in Krasnodar Krai, sat about 500 kilometers away from the first group of targets, and Zelensky described it as a key rear logistics hub for supplying fuel to Russian forces. Port infrastructure in occupied Mariupol was hit as well, and residents of Uzlovaya in Tula Oblast reported fires.
Moscow’s account
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 376 drones overnight, more than 140 of them over Leningrad Oblast. At least 12, it said, were intercepted on their way to the capital. Governor Beglov later said air defenses had beaten back the assault, a claim that sits oddly beside the fires and the evacuations his neighbor reported.
Beglov’s earlier warning had been blunter. Residents should follow the instructions of the Operational Headquarters, he said, and “there may be disruptions to mobile internet services.”
The timing
The raid came as Putin turned down the idea of a meeting. Zelensky had proposed face-to-face talks in an open letter, and Putin called the letter “rude.” Asked about direct negotiations, he said: “I don’t see any point for now.” The strikes also landed on the last day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, the showcase event where the Kremlin likes to present a country operating normally.
Zelensky framed the attack as an answer. “It is time to end this war,” he said. “But Russia’s ruler wants to keep fighting.” He called the strikes “a just answer to Moscow’s aggression.”
The war is now more than four years old, dating from Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and neither side has shown a way out of it.
Sources
- Ukraine strikes oil targets around St Petersburg in 'unprecedented' drone attack
- Drone attack on St Petersburg: residents advised to stay indoors
- Ukraine conducts large-scale drone strike on Russian targets
- Internet restricted in Russia's St Petersburg during drone attack (Ukrainska Pravda)
