UKRAINIAN drones hit energy and military sites in Saint Petersburg early Wednesday morning as officials gathered for a flagship economic forum in the city, Russian and Ukrainian authorities said.
Some 20,000 guests from 130 countries are set to attend the three-day annual Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) — an event once dubbed “Russia’s Davos” — which starts Wednesday.
The Kremlin vowed to respond to the strikes, which came a day after a barrage of Russian missiles and drones killed 23 people across Ukraine.
Saint Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said “several” infrastructure facilities were damaged but no one was killed in the attack.
Separate Russian strikes on frontline regions of Ukraine killed four, local officials said, as NATO chief Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv.
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The Ukrainian drones hit the Saint Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Kronstadt military base in the city, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said — the latest in a series of retaliatory attacks that Kyiv calls “long-range sanctions”.
“Ukraine’s plan for long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer,” he said on social media, posting a video of an oil depot ablaze.
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces said a Russian warship was hit at the Kronstadt naval base, posting black-and-white footage from onboard the drone of what he said was the attack.
Ukrainian officials said the attack was aimed at disrupting the three-day gathering, which President Vladimir Putin will attend and make a keynote address at on Friday.
“The Petersburg forum is opening with a nice plume of black smoke in the background after Ukrainian strikes,” said Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian defence minister.
An AFP reporter saw the smoke visible from the conference venue as delegates gathered for the first sessions.
Several flights from Moscow to Saint Petersburg were delayed, an AFP reporter at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport said.
Since Russia launched its full-scale assault on Ukraine in February 2022, SPIEF — previously Moscow’s premier economic event for courting Western investment — has been seen as a snapshot of Russia’s isolation on the world stage.
In the 2010s, French President Emmanuel Macron, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were among those who addressed the forum alongside Putin.
Now Russia can only rely on leaders of its closest allies to attend — this year, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania, alongside ministers from the likes of Cuba, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
The Kremlin’s economy envoy Kirill Dmitriev said the forum was a gathering of “sovereign countries”, slamming “globalist” rivals like the annual Davos gathering in Switzerland.