A large wave of Ukrainian drones struck Russian petroleum terminals, a major corporate data center, an e-commerce warehouse and a highway bridge early Sunday across St. Petersburg and the neighboring Leningrad region, officials and local reports said.
The strikes, which began around 2:50 a.m. local time on Oct. 18, caused fires across at least four city districts and left tens of thousands of residents without electrical power, according to Russian regional authorities and Ukrainian media outlets. St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov confirmed that one person was killed and five others were injured, while 12 apartment buildings and two houses sustained damage, The Kyiv Independent reported.
Flames at major energy infrastructure
Multiple explosions illuminated the night sky across St. Petersburg, a metropolis of 5.6 million people located roughly 530 miles north of the Ukrainian border. Beglov acknowledged strikes and localized blazes at the Petersburg Oil Terminal, the Baltic region’s primary petroleum export and transshipment hub, as well as the Ruchyi oil depot in the city’s Krasnogvardeisky district.
The Petersburg Oil Terminal maintains an annual throughput of 12.5 million tons of petroleum products, The Kyiv Independent reported, noting that video footage circulating online appeared to show the port facility burning. Ukrainian drone manufacturer Fire Point claimed on social media that its FP-1 attack drone was deployed against the oil terminal.
Drone debris also started a fire at the Ruchyi facility, a storage depot holding up to 3,900 cubic meters of commercial diesel and gasoline, according to the Kyiv Post. Russian independent news outlet Astra reported that emergency sirens in the city either sounded late or failed to alert residents before the strikes.
Strikes on tech centers and logistics hubs
The overnight assault also hit Russian corporate infrastructure beyond city limits. In the Leningrad region village of Novosergievka, strike drones hit a large server center owned by Russian technology giant VK, the parent firm of the VKontakte social network, according to the Kyiv Post. Astra reported that an electrical substation adjacent to the server farm was also hit. Although VK claimed its platforms operated normally, users across Russia documented widespread connection outages, the Kyiv Post reported.
An electrical substation disruption cut power to roughly 20,000 residents across 50 apartment buildings in Yanino, Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said, according to Ukrainian news agency UNN. Official accounts differed on the scale of the drone wave: Drozdenko initially reported 127 drones brought down over the region, later updating the figure to 144, while Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed 1,015 drones were destroyed across the country, UNN reported.
In the Kolpinsky district, aerial debris struck a fulfillment warehouse operated by Russian online marketplace Ozon. In a statement reported by Ukrainska Pravda, Ozon said:
“One of our logistics centres in St Petersburg came under a drone attack last night. We promptly evacuated all employees, and no one was injured. A fire broke out, and emergency services are working at the site.”
The retailer said goods at the facility were removed from online listings and unfulfillable orders would be canceled.
Transport disruptions and expanding targets
Transportation networks in and around the city faced immediate disruptions. According to UNN, operations at Pulkovo Airport were temporarily halted, resulting in 15 canceled flights and at least 25 departures delayed to both domestic cities and international destinations such as Turkey and Egypt.
A drone also struck the cable-stayed bridge over the Korabelny fairway, about 4.5 kilometers from the Petersburg Oil Terminal, Astra reported. The bridge forms part of the Western High-Speed Diameter toll expressway. Municipal engineering crews were dispatched Sunday to evaluate structural integrity on the road deck and stay cables.
The assault follows previous strikes on Russian digital infrastructure, including strikes against Yandex server facilities in the Vladimir, Ryazan and Kaluga regions, the Kyiv Post reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had previously warned that Ukraine would respond in kind to Moscow’s assaults on Ukrainian digital and energy networks. It remains unclear how long repairs will take on the damaged electrical substations and transport links in St. Petersburg.
