Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia on Sunday in one of the largest aerial attacks of the war, setting fire to an oil export terminal and a nearby depot in St.
Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said fires broke out at the city’s oil terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses. Ozon said a logistics hub was burning, while technology company VK confirmed that drones struck a data center in the Leningrad region; the company said its services remained available. Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point said Ukraine’s military had targeted the VK facility.
Russian authorities said air defenses destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones across 15 regions, occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. Beglov reported one death and five injuries in the St. Petersburg attack, while a separate account from local authorities put the number of injured at 15. The full extent of damage to the oil facilities and any disruption to shipments had not been established.
The strikes came after President Donald Trump criticized Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure and said he was postponing new sanctions against Moscow because he did not want to drive Russia away from negotiations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions would strengthen Russia and said U.S. -Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after a period in which it was blocked.
The attack also followed an announced energy ceasefire that Trump said Russia and Ukraine had accepted on Oct. Kyiv said it initially observed the arrangement but resumed strikes on Russian oil facilities after a three-day pause, while Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times during the week after the announcement.
Russia continued striking Ukraine at the same time. Zelenskyy said a Russian overnight barrage damaged more than 10 energy facilities and left more than half a million people without electricity, heating or running water. Ukrainian officials said a 21-year-old woman was killed in the Kyiv region, while Russian forces said their attack also targeted military-linked data, logistics and industrial facilities.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukraine could not change what he called the course of the conflict. And Ukrainian negotiating teams with Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as the governments considered further diplomatic steps.