“At this moment, 30 drones were shot down by air defense forces over the territory of the Leningrad region. Combat actions continue,” Drozdenko wrote in a post published before five o’clock in the morning. He later specified that there were fifty drones.
The Russian governor reported about drones at night a total of four times. For the first time at 01:47 SELČ talked about three drones. In the first post of the night, he warned the residents of the Leningrad region that the authorities may reduce the speed of the mobile Internet due to the alarm.
The Astra Telegram channel later reported that the drones had hit an oil transfer station in St. Petersburg. “Astra analyzed numerous footage of the fire from eyewitnesses and came to the conclusion that it was attacked and that the St. Petersburg oil terminal was on fire,” the channel’s post reads. For example, Exilenova+ also reported on the attack.
The Russians later admitted that it was Ukrainian drones that attacked “infrastructural objects in St. Petersburg,” wrote the Russian state agency TASS. St. Petersburg City Council stated that the attack resulted in several injuries. “Several buildings were damaged. The consequences are currently being liquidated,” the council said.
Putin is to speak
The attack on the Leningrad region, during which the Russians shot down dozens of drones, occurred on the day when the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum begins. It is called the Russian Davos and will last until June 6. The annual meetings of the World Economic Forum are held in this Swiss city, which are among the most important events of this type.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the economic forum in St. Petersburg used to be a similarly announced event, but European and American business leaders stopped participating because of the war. The Kremlin claims that American and European companies are still interested in the forum, but many of them try not to talk about their participation in it publicly.
However, the United States will have its representative in St. Petersburg years later, namely the head of the United States Commission for Fine Arts (CFA), Rodney Mims Cook. CFA is an independent agency of the federal government, which, for example, approved US President Donald Trump’s plans for the construction of a ballroom in the White House or the design of the upcoming triumphal arch in Washington.
