A large overnight drone attack on St Petersburg killed one person and injured at least five, while fires broke out at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot, Governor Alexander Beglov said. The assault also damaged 12 apartment buildings and two homes, temporarily closed Pulkovo Airport and prompted warnings that mobile internet service could be disrupted.
A logistics centre operated by online retailer Ozon and a regional data centre belonging to technology company VK were also hit. Ozon said its employees were evacuated and no one was injured after a fire started at the facility. VK said a drone targeted its data centre but that its services continued operating normally despite reports of early-morning outages.
The scale of the claimed interception could not be independently reconciled with the damage reported in St Petersburg, and Kyiv had not publicly taken responsibility for the attack.
The strikes came days after Ukraine resumed attacks on Russian oil facilities following a three-day pause linked to a proposed energy ceasefire announced by U.S. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times during the week after the announcement, leaving tens of thousands of people without power.
Zelensky has said that easing pressure on Moscow would strengthen Russia’s ability to continue the war.
The St Petersburg attack follows repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. A Ukrainian drone hit the city’s oil terminal in July, when Zelensky described the operation as part of a campaign against facilities that generate revenue for Russia’s war effort. Both countries have intensified attacks on energy infrastructure as winter approaches; Zelensky said Russia launched nearly 2,700 drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles against Ukraine in the preceding week, most aimed at energy facilities.