St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Attack: Pootin Gets a Slap on SPIEF

June 3, 2026June 4, 2026

On June 3, 2026, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the St. Petersburg oil terminal attack by Ukrainian drones — along with a string of other high-value targets. The list includes the Michurinsk Progress plant, a manufacturer of precision weapons components. Ukrainian forces also hit an RBSN-4N short-range radio navigation system at Saky airfield. Other targets included an ammunition and drone depot in occupied Donetsk region, a fuel storage facility in occupied Luhansk region, and a missile corvette with port infrastructure at Kronstadt.

So yes, today was a good day for Good Birds¹ overall — but the St. Petersburg oil terminal is what’s dominating the news cycle. And for good reason, because this wasn’t just a legitimate military target.

It was also an extremely personal humiliation for Pootin, and to understand exactly how personal, you need to rewind about thirty years.

Why St. Petersburg and why today?

Nearly 30 years ago, in 1997, Russia launched what it called the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum — SPIEF — and has held it every year since. The timing was no accident, because a year earlier, Moscow had just lost the First Chechen War and exposed its own weakness to the world. Former Soviet republics were repositioning fast, Central Asia drifting toward China, the Baltic states setting course for the EU and NATO.

Then Pootin took power and reshaped the forum in his own FSB-flavored image. Events like SPIEF have always been prime hunting ground for intelligence services — recruitment opportunities, direct contact with agents already on the payroll. This is almost certainly where Pootin first cultivated his “business relationship” with Gerhard Schröder.

The 2026 edition: Rats in a Cage

Fast forward to 2026, and SPIEF is back in business — complete with a US delegation visiting for the first time in years. Not that anyone from the actual US power structure showed up. No first tier, no second tier, not even third tier. Instead, Russia got the Tate brothers. Authorities in Romania and the UK are investigating them for human trafficking and running a sexual slavery operation. They were joined by Scott Ritter, convicted in the US for sex crimes against minors. The forum also attracted a collection of far-right antisemites, including Candace Owens and Steven Seagal.

SPIEF officially bills itself as an economic forum — Russian propaganda loves calling it “the Davos of Petersburg”. So if these charming guests were supposedly evaluating investment potential in the Russian economy, the Ukrainian drones gave them the most accurate market analysis available. On SPIEF’s opening day, Good Birds delivered warmth and light across Saint Petersburg. They paid a visit to the Russian missile corvette Boykiy before dropping by the oil terminal. Here is the footage of the strike on the corvette:

What Madyar said

Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), described the visit this way (direct quote):

The sacred homeland of the dictator, where the ‘Leningrad street’ taught little Vova to strike first, 60 years ago.

St. Petersburg Economic Forum — time to run the calculators on economic prospects and trends.

St. Petersburg oil terminal — the 20th fuel depot successfully lit up by a freedom-loving Ukrainian Bird in the past thirty-three days (May 1 through June 3). The jubilee strike.

Today — a joint operation by deep strike forces: USF², SOF, SBU, HUR³.

What the Smoke Is Saying

There’s already plenty of footage online — the flight paths, the impacts, and then massive black columns climbing high above the city. The drones clearly hit large fuel storage tanks, and those burn long, bright, and enthusiastically — giving every SPIEF guest a front-row view of a black sky. Some may even witness the “oil rain” that international press reported after the Tuapse and Perm strikes.

Even Russian state media is now publishing photos that deserve a separate comment. The image that’s been circulating for hours — the one you’ve almost certainly already seen — is this one:

Not everyone caught the symbolism in the background, so we circled it in red. That building behind the fire column is the famous Lakhta Center — Gazprom headquarters, where the company relocated its central structures from Moscow’s Nametkina Street. Pootin visits that building regularly. Schröder has certainly been there too. By hitting the terminal, the Ukrainian Armed Forces sent a very clear message: today it was the oil terminal, but Good Birds can visit the Gazprom tower whenever they choose.

Two or three minutes of flight time

In the footage and photos, you can clearly make out at least three separate fire sources — three black columns spread far apart from each other, which means Russian air defense couldn’t stop a single one. Next time, the drones can adjust course slightly and pay Lakhta Center a visit instead. One well-placed strike on the Gazprom tower would be an epic sight — not a swarm, just one drone would be enough for all of St. Petersburg and every forum guest to see exactly what Pootin’s greatness looks like up close.

Either way, it was Ukraine’s Good Birds who officially opened this forum. And Pootin understood perfectly well that the greeting was addressed to him personally — because if the drones reached fuel tanks inside the city, his head was maybe two or three minutes of flight time away. Congratulations on the St. Petersburg oil terminal attack, Vova. The Birds send their regards.

¹Good Birds – slang for strike drones. Why “good”? Because they bring “warmth and light” to enemy military factories, ammunition depots, and oil refineries. Sarcastic? Of course. Effective? Even more so.

²USF – Unmanned Systems Forces, Ukraine’s newly established branch of the Armed Forces. No, not the U.S. Navy — in Ukraine USF means those who destroy Russian bombers, not those who park aircraft carriers.

³HUR (Ukrainian: ГУР, Головне Управління Розвідки, Holovne Upravlinnya Rozvidky) – the military intelligence agency of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine.