Kronstadt, Russia’s major naval Base after Black Sea Fleet losses, gets hit by Ukrainian drones (VIDEO)

Ukrainian drones flew about 1,000 kilometers overnight to strike Russian Navy arsenals and the Baltic Fleet base at Kronstadt near St. Petersburg, while a separate long-range strike traveled approximately 500 kilometers to hit an oil depot in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.

The Kronstadt operation was executed jointly by Ukraine's Special Operations Forces' "Deep Strike" units, the Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS), and the SBU, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces confirm.

Zelenskyy framed the operation as "long-range sanctions" against Russia's refusal to end the war: "It's time to end this war. But the Russian leader wants to fight. So Ukrainian sanctions for this aggression are working."

Kronstadt: Russian Navy symbol after Black Sea Fleet losses

Kronstadt, located on an island in the Gulf of Finland west of St. Petersburg, has served as a base of the Russian Navy since the early eighteenth century, hosting warships, submarines, naval training centers, repair docks, and active shipbuilding yards.

After Ukraine systematically degraded Russia's Black Sea Fleet, sinking the Moskva flagship and forcing the surviving warships to retreat from Sevastopol to Novorossiysk, Kronstadt's strategic value has grown as the surviving anchor of Russian naval power.

"Kronstadt is a symbol of the Russian Navy and a strategic element of the enemy's war machine," the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces said.

All of these military facilities support Russia's naval group's operations in the Baltic Sea, the SBU added.

Second Petersburg strike this week

The 5-6 June operation followed an earlier Ukrainian deep-strike campaign overnight on 2-3 June that hit the Petersburg Oil Terminal, set fire to the Russian guided-missile corvette Boikiy in dry dock at the Kronstadt Naval Base, and struck a Russian defense industry enterprise in the Tambov Oblast.

Krasnodar oil depot: Ust-Labinsk

The Krasnodar strike hit an oil depot in Ust-Labinsk, the SBU confirmed. The depot fits within an ongoing Ukrainian campaign against Russian oil and fuel logistics infrastructure, which has targeted refineries, terminals, and storage facilities across Krasnodar, Rostov, and other southern Russian oblasts. 

Zelenskyy's "long-range sanctions" 

Zelenskyy's term for the strikes is "long-range sanctions," which frames the deep-strike campaign as a unilateral Ukrainian instrument against a Russian government rejecting Ukraine's calls for a ceasefire.

"Russia needs to end this war and stop the strikes on civilian life," Zelenskyy said. "Any manifestations of injustice against Ukraine will receive a just response. I thank our soldiers for their precision."

The framing positions the strikes as a response cycle: Russian refusal to halt fighting produces another round of Ukrainian strikes.