Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg sets oil terminal ablaze, kills one

Ukraine launched a large drone attack on the Russian city of St Petersburg overnight on October 18, setting oil facilities ablaze and killing one person. Governor Alexander Beglov said five people were injured and firefighters were battling blazes at the St Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district. Several residential buildings were also hit.

Russian e-commerce company Ozon said its logistics centre in St Petersburg caught fire, and internet company VK said its data centre in the Leningrad region was attacked by drones but services were running normally. Pulkovo, the city’s main airport, restricted operations for safety reasons, and Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones were shot down and about 20,000 people were left without electricity. The TASS news agency said it was the largest attack on the region in four years, and Russia’s defence ministry said 1,015 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight.

Lithuanian authorities said a drone entered Lithuanian airspace from Poland on Sunday and exploded in the Pasvalys district in the north of the country. Debris damaged a moving car but no one was injured, and the head of Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre said the object was most likely a Ukrainian drone that strayed during the strikes on the St Petersburg region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian strikes on residential buildings overnight killed two people and injured 12. He accused Moscow of attacking Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since US President Donald Trump announced an “energy ceasefire.” Earlier this week Zelenskyy said Kyiv would resume strikes on Russian refineries.

The story was also discussed by Mongolian users on X, who shared footage of smoke rising over St Petersburg.