Ukraine targets St Petersburg as ‘Putin’s Davos’ gets underway
By Kosta Gak, Anna Chernova, Helen Regan, CNN
(CNN) — Russia said it downed hundreds of drones over its territory, including about 60 over the Leningrad region Tuesday night, in a Ukrainian attack as a major economic forum gets underway.
Saint Petersburg governor Aleksandr Beglov said three districts were targeted as part of an overnight Ukrainian drone assault that wounded several people and damaged infrastructure facilities.
Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed more than 350 Ukrainian drones over territories both close to the border but also as further afield as Moscow, St Petersburg, and Novgorod in the country’s west, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In Smolensk, a city in western Russia close to the Belarus border, Ukraine launched strikes on “critical infrastructure facilities,” Smolensk governor Vasiliy Anokhin said.
Two firefighters were killed “while fighting a fire caused by debris from a downed enemy drone,” Anokhin said, adding that two other firefighters and one civilian sustained minor injuries.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky said “long-range strikes” struck “key targets” including the St Petersburg oil terminal, one of the largest oil transshipment complexes in northwestern Russia.
Other targets included “military targets at the Kronstadt base,” an island naval port near St Petersburg, and a facility in the Tambov region that Ukraine said was involved in the production of Russian weapons, Zelensky added.
Zelensky also posted footage showing explosions and several fires at one Russian facility and a huge plume of thick, black smoke rising behind a high-rise building.
Ukraine this year has rapidly developed its medium and long-range drones to attack Russian targets, including Moscow’s oil facilities and other locations far beyond the frontlines.
“Ukraine’s plan for long-range strikes is being carried out exactly as needed to bring peace closer,” Zelensky said.
Economic forum
The attacks came as the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, or SPIEF, a major business event known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s version of Davos, gets underway in the city on Wednesday.
The airspace around St Petersburg international airport was restricted on Wednesday morning, leading to delays of around two dozen flights, the airport said in a statement.
It also comes a day after Russia launched a lethal barrage on Ukraine early Tuesday, hitting the capital Kyiv and the central city of Dnipro in a broad-ranging offensive that inflicted one of the deadliest attacks for months.
At least 23 people were killed in the overnight assault, including seven people in Kyiv and 16 others in Dnipro, according to Ukrainian authorities.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he “strongly” condenmed the attacks, in which more than 600 drones and dozens of missiles, were fired on Ukraine, according to the military, hitting key civilian infrastructure.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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