St. Petersburg oil terminal hit by Ukrainian drones
Russia says it shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones, and one person died in St. Petersburg. Trump accused Zelensky the same day of not wanting the war to end.
Ukrainian drones attacked St. Petersburg, Russia’s second city, overnight on Sunday, October 18, and the fires at its oil terminal come just as Washington argues that strikes on Russian refineries are pushing up fuel prices worldwide, so the story reaches consumers in Serbia too. The attack came a few days after the energy ceasefire announced by Donald Trump collapsed, and on the same day the US president publicly accused his Ukrainian counterpart of never wanting to end the war.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, Crimea and the Black Sea. According to the Ukrainian air-raid monitoring channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+, the attack on St. Petersburg began at about 2:50 a.m. local time. Russian state media called it the largest on the city since the war began in 2022.
What is known about the damage in St. Petersburg and the surrounding area
St. Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov confirmed the attack on Telegram, where he wrote:
“Emergency services are continuing to fight the fires at the St. Petersburg oil terminal, at the Ruchyi oil depot and at industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district.”
According to Beglov, one person was killed, five were hospitalized, and 12 residential buildings and two houses were damaged. Russian state media later reported, citing the Leningrad region health committee, that the number of injured had risen to ten. Traffic at Pulkovo airport was also restricted.
Facilities with no link to oil were hit as well. The social network VK, formerly VKontakte, confirmed that a drone attacked its data center, saying its services were running even though users reported disruptions. The Russian retailer Ozon said one of its logistics centers was hit. The company stated on Telegram:
“We evacuated all employees and no one was injured. A fire broke out, and emergency services are working at the scene.”
In the town of Yanino in the Leningrad region, two substations were hit, leaving about 20,000 people without power on Sunday morning, according to regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko. He said a woman and three children were taken to a hospital with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after drone debris fell on their house and started a fire.
The St. Petersburg oil terminal is one of Russia’s largest fuel storage and export hubs, with annual throughput of 12.5 million tons. The same facility was hit on July 4. The Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point claims its FP-1 drone struck the terminal, while the Kyiv Independent says it could not independently verify either the targets or the extent of the damage.
Why do the figures for downed drones differ?
Sources disagree on how many drones were shot down over the Leningrad region alone. According to Irish public broadcaster RTE, Drozdenko spoke of 144 downed drones, while the Kyiv Independent reports his words as 127. Both figures are attributed to the same governor, and the difference is unexplained. The overall figure of 1,015 drones has not been independently confirmed either, since it comes from Russia’s Defense Ministry.
The Kremlin commented on the attack briefly: spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian strikes cannot change the course of events.
Trump: Zelensky does not want the war to end
The energy ceasefire Trump announced last week had not been accepted beforehand by either side, and it fell apart quickly. Moscow kept hitting Ukraine’s power grid, and Kyiv returned to attacking Russian refineries, which it had suspended under American pressure. We have already reported on Zelensky’s decision to lift the ban on such strikes.
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Russia has struck Ukrainian energy, oil and gas facilities 76 times since Trump’s announcement. In one week, he said, Russia launched nearly 2,700 drones, 1,700 guided aerial bombs and 66 missiles, mostly ballistic. Substations in four Ukrainian regions were hit, and two people were killed at an agricultural company in the Volyn region. In Zaporizhzhia one woman died, and a six-year-old girl is among the wounded.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that Zelensky “does not want to end this war, and probably never did.” He added:
“He could have gotten a better deal two years ago than he can get now.”
The US president also said he does not want to do anything that would push Russia “unreasonably” away from the negotiating table, and he postponed new sanctions on Moscow. On Friday, October 16, he signed an order waiving a package of sanctions under the Graham bill, passed by Congress, which was meant to hit Putin and Russia’s energy and defense sectors. On Sunday he wrote about that step:
“I can sign it later, or whenever I want!”
In an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, Zelensky responded to such assessments:
“You cannot compare me and Putin. He is the aggressor. He occupied us. He has killed adults and children, his own soldiers. He is a terrorist, and that is why I hope President Trump will be very clear in his position.”
On social media the Ukrainian president also said the pressure should fall on Moscow, not Kyiv: “Russia is the one that has to face pressure for peace to have a chance.” He added that America should see “that Russia is not taking any retaliatory steps in response to eased sanctions or deals.” This month Trump also signed a diesel purchase agreement with Moscow, which, according to Ireland’s RTE, aims to lower fuel prices for American consumers ahead of the elections.
Earlier this week Putin, in a military uniform, said Moscow intends to take the rest of eastern Ukraine by force, and US-led negotiations, in the fifth year of the war, have so far produced no breakthrough.
