Ukraine strikes Russian oil refinery on first day of ‘Putin’s Davos’ | News World

The people of St Petersburg woke as much as see a plume of smoke rising over the town after Ukraine launched a drone strike overnight.

The town’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said ‘infrastructure objects’ in three districts of the town had been hit on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the drones had struck several ‘military targets’, including the Petersburg Oil Terminal ‘which serves the war’ and ‘an enterprise within the Tambov region involved within the production of Russian weapons’.

In a post to X, he said: ‘Necessary facilities on Russian territory were hit last night.

‘I thank our warriors for his or her precision. Ukraine’s plan for long-range sanctions is being implemented exactly as needed to bring peace closer. Glory to Ukraine!’

Beglov confirmed in a post on Telegram that clean-up efforts are underway and that several people had been injured, but there have been no fatalities because of this of last night’s strike.

The attack comes ahead of what was meant to be an enormous day for the town for very different reasons. Russia’s annual economic forum begins today, which Russian president Vladimir Putin will attend.

The St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) has been held annually since 1997, and under the auspices of the Russian president since 2006.

The event attracts around 10,000 attendees from 120 countries from across the business sector, earning it comparisons with the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

Its website describes it as ‘certainly one of the most important and most important business events on the earth’.

The strikes got here a day after Russia unleashed its own latest spate of drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities including Kyiv. 

No less than 23 people were killed and 138 were injured, authorities said on Tuesday.

Zelensky warned in his day by day address that the Kremlin is already planning its next strike and called on Ukraine’s allies to introduce harsher sanctions on Russia to undercut its ability to provide weapons and missiles.

But even without these increased sanctions, Putin’s own officials have reportedly warned him that he’s running out of cash.

Russia’s central bank and other leading finance experts within the country are understood to have urged the despot to rein in defence spending because the bill becomes ‘unsustainable’.

The Kremlin boss is alleged to have told financial leaders to save lots of elsewhere so he can proceed to fund his costly war.

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