Ukraine strikes Kronstadt naval base, Baltic Fleet arsenal and multiple oil facilities in 1,000-kilometre drone campaign

Ukrainian drone forces, in a joint operation by the Special Operations Forces' "Deep Strike" units, the Unmanned Systems Forces, and the SBU's Alpha special operations unit, struck a set of Russian naval and energy targets in a campaign that began on the evening of June 5 and extended through the early hours of June 6. President Zelensky confirmed the scope in a post on X: "Last night, our drones covered a distance of about 1,000 kilometres to the St. Petersburg region — to the enemy navy's arsenals and a base in Kronstadt. Our long-range sanctions also reached about 500 kilometres into Krasnodar Krai and hit an oil depot. Russia must end its war and stop its attacks on life. Any manifestation of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response."

The Kronstadt Naval Base — the primary basing and repair hub for Russia's Baltic Fleet on an island near St. Petersburg — sustained strikes that ignited a fire and a column of smoke near the Kronstadt Marine Plant, the facility responsible for maintaining the fleet's surface vessels and submarines. A simultaneous wave hit the 15th Naval Arsenal at Lebyazhye in Leningrad Oblast, an ammunition and missile storage complex, triggering secondary detonations. The SBU confirmed that both facilities "support the operations of Russia's naval grouping in the Baltic Sea" and that their degradation "limits Russia's ability to operate in the Baltic region." The June 3 strike on corvette Boykiy in the Kronstadt sector — which destroyed the vessel — preceded Saturday's campaign as part of a systematic effort to degrade Baltic Fleet logistics.

Oil and fuel infrastructure across two major Russian regions was also struck. In Leningrad Oblast, the Petergofskaya oil depot in Lomonosov was hit, causing explosions and fire; the Neste oil terminal in the same city — a key distribution hub for petroleum products in northwestern Russia, with a storage capacity of 40,000 cubic metres of light petroleum products — was set ablaze. The 1060th Logistics Support Centre's ammunition arsenal at Bolshaya Izhora recorded secondary detonations. Approximately 500 kilometres south, the Ust-Labinsk oil depot in Krasnodar Krai — a rear logistics hub for Russian forces on the southern and eastern fronts — caught fire in at least three fuel storage tanks. The Poltavskaya oil depot in Krasnodar Krai sustained a fire covering roughly 5,000 square metres across 28 oil reservoirs with a combined capacity of 14,950 cubic metres, supplying consumers across Krasnodar Krai and the Republic of Adygea. The Antipinsky oil refinery in Tyumen, one of Russia's largest privately owned processing facilities with an annual throughput of 9 million tonnes of crude, was also struck. Mariupol seaport and the town of Uzlovaya in Tula Oblast were among additional sites hit.

Russia's defence ministry said air defences downed 376 Ukrainian drones across 16 regions, Abkhazia, and over the Azov and Black seas. Leningrad Oblast governor Alexander Drozdenko reported 86 drones shot down in his region; St. Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov issued an unprecedented stay-at-home advisory for the city's residents — the first since the war began — and warned of possible disruptions to mobile internet. Pulkovo airport temporarily suspended flights. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that eight drones heading toward the capital were intercepted.

The strikes fell on the final day of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which drew roughly 20,000 guests from more than 130 countries — Putin's annual showcase for foreign investment. Ukrainian drones had already struck an oil complex and a naval base on the forum's opening day, June 3, raising black smoke over the UNESCO World Heritage city centre. Speaking at the forum Friday, Putin rejected Zelensky's June 5 open letter — the first public direct appeal from Kyiv since 2022, proposing face-to-face talks in a third country — as "irrespectful" and said it made a meeting "impossible." He told Russian troops: "Work, brothers," and reiterated that hostilities would end only "when we have achieved the objectives we have set." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded Saturday: "Failures will get more humiliating. There are no safe places in Russia that can be exempt from Ukrainian long-range attacks, and the intensity of attacks will continue to grow."

Russia simultaneously launched 272 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine overnight; air defences intercepted 249, with 19 hitting 11 locations and debris falling in 13 more. Casualties included at least four killed — two workers at a Zaporizhzhia enterprise struck at dawn, a 51-year-old man killed by a Russian FPV drone while riding a scooter in the Kharkiv region's Derhachi community, and a male civilian killed by a combined drone and guided-bomb strike in the Sumy region's Vorozhba community. A 77-year-old woman from Sumy region's Khutir-Mykhailivska community had been killed the previous evening in a separate drone strike; her body was found on June 6. More than 25 people were injured across Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, and Kherson.

On Friday, Russia and Ukraine exchanged 185 prisoners of war each, mediated by the United Arab Emirates. Macron, Starmer, and Merz are scheduled to meet Zelensky in London on Sunday.