At the annual three-day St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, which begins on Wednesday and was once called the “Russian Davos,” about 20,000 guests from 130 countries are expected to participate.
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The Kremlin promised to respond to these strikes, which were carried out a day after 23 people were killed across Ukraine during a barrage of Russian missiles and drones.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said several infrastructure facilities were damaged, but no one was killed in the attack.
Upon NATO chief Mark Rutte’s arrival in Kyiv, local officials reported that four people were killed in separate Russian strikes in Ukraine’s border regions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that Ukrainian drones struck the St. Petersburg oil terminal and the Kronstadt military base in the city. This was the latest in a series of retaliatory attacks Kyiv calls “long-range sanctions.”
“Ukraine’s long-range sanctions plan is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer,” Zelensky said on social media, posting a video showing a burning oil depot.
The commander of Ukraine’s drone forces reported that a Russian warship was damaged at the Kronstadt naval base and shared black-and-white footage from a drone that, he said, captured the attack.
Due to these attacks, the main St. Petersburg airport had to be closed for several hours overnight.
Ukrainian officials said the attack aimed to disrupt the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, where Kremlin host Vladimir Putin will also speak on Friday.
“The Petersburg forum opens with a beautiful pillar of black smoke in the background after Ukraine’s strikes,” wrote Ukrainian Defense Minister’s advisor Serhiy Sternenko on social media.
AFP news agency journalist saw smoke visible from the conference venue as delegates gathered for the first sessions.
Several flights from Moscow to St. Petersburg were delayed, AFP journalist reported at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport.
Russian Davos
Since Russia launched a full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022, the economic forum, once Moscow’s main economic event aimed at attracting Western investments, is seen as a reflection of Russia’s isolation on the global stage.
In the past decade, French President Emmanuel Macron, then German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe were among those who spoke alongside Putin at this forum.
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Now Russia can only expect participation from its closest allies’ leaders – this year it includes the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania, as well as ministers from countries such as Cuba, Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia.
Kremlin envoy for economic affairs Kirill Dmitriev stated that the forum is a gathering of “sovereign countries” and condemned “globalist” competitors like the annual Davos meeting in Switzerland.
“The countries of the Global South are strengthening their economic power, actively seeking partnerships with Russia, and will be well represented,” he said.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, who condemned Russia’s strikes on Ukraine on Tuesday, will speak at an environmental discussion on Friday.
The United States is sending Rodney Mims Cook Jr., head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts overseeing the new President Donald Trump’s White House banquet hall. He will speak in the discussion “Russia and the U.S.: Cultural Dialogue.”
Several marginal figures from Western countries were also invited, including right-wing commentator Candace Owens, U.S. actor Steven Seagal who supports Putin, and representatives of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).
On Tuesday, Andrew Tate, a UK and U.S. dual citizen who calls himself a misogynist and is accused in Romania of human trafficking and rape, landed in Moscow, sparking speculation that he will also participate in the forum.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov promised to respond to the attack in St. Petersburg.
“Our responses will be systemic,” Peskov told journalists.
In recent months, Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian energy and military targets, calling it a justified retaliation for nightly Russian shelling of cities.
Russian-appointed officials in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine reported that seven people were killed when a Ukrainian drone hit a bus traveling between Moscow and the Crimean Peninsula, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.
On the night to Wednesday, Russia reported that its air defense intercepted 354 Ukrainian drones in several regions, including territories bordering Ukraine and annexed Crimea.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes killed two people in the southern city of Kherson and two in the northeastern Kharkiv region, local Ukrainian officials reported.
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