A huge plume of thick black smoke dominated the St Petersburg skyline on Wednesday, the opening day of Vladimir Putin's flagship International Economic Forum, after Ukrainian drones struck the area. Local officials admitted drones had damaged “infrastructure”, without specifying what was hit. All delegates saw the smoke as they arrived at the expo centre on the edge of the city.
The attack was the second on the city in days. Residents had been told to stay at home after a large-scale Ukrainian drone assault, with the regional governor reporting 141 drones shot down over the surrounding region. On the closing day of the forum, drones struck again.
“Ukrainian drones attack St Petersburg during Putin's economic forum as Armenia re-elects pro-Western leader”
Inside the congress hall, Putin tried to project confidence. “There are wars and sanctions. But the economy is developing,” he claimed. “Everything is stable.” He was applauded by entrepreneurs and friendly foreign dignitaries. But outside, the reality was different: massive battlefield losses and long-range Ukrainian drones penetrating deep inside the country.
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky, published an open letter taunting Putin about his age and Russian setbacks, proposing they meet in a neutral country for peace talks. Putin dismissed the offer, criticising its “rude” tone. “It's not the author of the letter I need to respond to,” he said, “but our soldiers on the frontline… I say to them: keep at it, brothers!”
The drone campaign has been relentless. In separate overnight attacks, Ukrainian forces struck oil facilities and a passenger train. A massive fire erupted at the Grushevaya Balka oil trans-shipment base near Novorossiysk, requiring 130 firefighters to extinguish. A drone hit a passenger train from Moscow to Simferopol in occupied Crimea, killing the driver's assistant and injuring the driver. All passenger train traffic in Crimea was halted. Russia's defence ministry said its forces shot down 310 Ukrainian drones in a single night, but the strikes continued across the Krasnodar Krai, Volgograd and Crimea regions.
Meanwhile, Putin suffered another setback far from the battlefield. Armenians went to the polls on Sunday and re-elected Nikol Pashinyan, their increasingly pro-Western prime minister, defying the Kremlin's demands. Pashinyan, who came to power in 2018 after a popular uprising, had gradually moved closer to the West, appalled by Russia's conduct in Ukraine. Putin retaliated in 2023 by allowing Russian peacekeepers to stand aside as Azerbaijan reclaimed the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Kremlin expected the resulting refugee crisis to topple Pashinyan, but instead Armenians directed their anger at Moscow. Preliminary results showed Pashinyan's Civil Contract party scoring a decisive victory over the pro-Russia Strong Armenia bloc. Pashinyan argued that Armenia's future depended on ending its vassalage to Moscow.
For Putin, the forum that was meant to showcase strength instead delivered a stark image: smoke over St Petersburg, drones overhead, and a former ally turning its back.