Ukrainian drones struck the outskirts of Saint Petersburg on Wednesday, June 3rd—ahead of a financial conference set to feature an address from Vladimir Putin.
No fatalities were reported, with local authorities claiming to have downed 59 UAVs using conventional air defence systems. Moscow’s ‘celebrity’ guests Steven Seagal and Candace Owens were also confirmed safe.
Reflecting on the strikes, Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov issued a brief threat:
Our responses will be systemic in nature.
Hitting the second city on the eve of the St. Petersburg Economic Forum—sometimes nicknamed the ‘Russian Davos’—is part of what, on social media, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky called “long-range sanctions.”
In a separate incident earlier in the day, Russian state media reported that at least eight people were killed and 10 others injured when a drone hit a passenger bus heading towards Simferopol in Russian-annexed Crimea.
