I'm John Batchler, the news from St. Petersburg, Russia.

Ukraine strikes Petersburg as, St. Petersburg as Putin's

forum gets underway. The explanation. A beautiful spring day in Petersburg and the Ukrainian

strike on the Petersburg oil terminal so that we're seeing a landscape of this beautiful fortress

city built by St. Peter himself, built by Peter the Great himself and dedicated to his

St. Petersburg. Putin's origin comes from this city. I visited it once upon a time. It's a privilege to be among what the

empire was once, no longer. The burning oil terminal and this explanation. Ukrainian drone set an

oil terminal in St. Petersburg ablaze, sending plumes of black smoke billowing into the sky,

as Vladimir Putin's flagship economic forum began nearby.

Ukraine's general staff said the long-range drones

hit the St. Petersburg oil terminal,

a military industrial plant in the Tambov region,

and an airfield in Crimea.

The strikes come after Russia intensified its deadly attacks

on Ukrainian cities in recent days. Michael Bernstam of the Hoover Institution is here

to help me understand these events because this looks like a political attack. There are other

attacks that are in the infrastructure of both countries.

But this one was meant to be on this day, at this time, to show the people of Petersburg that there's nowhere safe.

Michael, a very good evening to you.

The forum that's meeting in Petersburg, it happens every year.

This is the fifth time it's happened in wartime.

And I believe that only Russians are there.

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