Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg as ‘Russian Davos’ opens in city

• 01Ukrainian drones hit oil storage facilities in St Petersburg early Wednesday, with several drones crashing into the Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts after Russian air defences failed to intercept them.
• 02Ukrainian drones struck the Kronstadt naval base and shipyard in Leningrad oblast, home to Russia's Baltic fleet, and video footage showed a drone hitting the corvette Boikiy, which caught fire while in dry dock undergoing repairs.
• 03St Petersburg's airport was temporarily closed following the strikes, preventing some guests from arriving for the economic forum's opening ceremony.
• 04About 20,000 visitors from 130 countries are expected to attend the three-day annual summit, with attendees including Gerhard Schröder, Candace Owens, the Tate brothers, and a US delegation led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr.
• 05Zelenskyy stated the strikes targeted the Petersburg oil terminal, Kronstadt base, and a weapons factory in the Tambov region, with the oil facility located approximately 1,100km from Ukraine's state border.
• 06On Tuesday, a Russian missile and drone barrage killed 23 people across Ukraine and injured scores more, prompting Zelenskyy to request additional Patriot interceptor missiles from the US.
• 07NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said Russia is 'increasingly desperate' as Ukraine continues to make 'battlefield gains.'
• 08Moscow's economy envoy Kirill Dmitriev described forum attendees as representing 'sovereign countries' and criticized 'globalist' rivals participating in Davos.

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Ukrainian drones struck oil storage facilities and a Russian naval vessel in St Petersburg on Wednesday, hours before the city's annual economic forum opened with Putin scheduled to speak Friday. The strikes temporarily closed the airport and created visible smoke over the forum venue located about 10 miles away, with Zelenskyy characterizing the attack as part of Ukraine's long-range economic disruption campaign. The forum, expected to draw 20,000 visitors from 130 countries, comes after a Russian missile barrage the previous day killed 23 people across Ukraine.