Ukraine's Biggest Drone Strike Sets St. Petersburg Refinery Ablaze, Killing One

Ukraine launched its largest drone attack of the war on Sunday, striking deep into Russian territory and setting St. Petersburg's oil infrastructure ablaze, while reports emerged that Russia had attacked Ukraine's energy grid 76 times during a US-brokered ceasefire.

Around 150 drones struck oil, logistics and digital infrastructure in St. Petersburg — Russia's second-largest city and the hometown of President Vladimir Putin — and the neighbouring Leningrad region during the night [265666]. The attack came one week into an energy truce announced by the United States, during which Russia continued to strike Ukraine's power grid [266057].

Russian officials said air defences intercepted 126 drones in the surrounding region [265560]. St. Petersburg Governor Alexandr Glebov reported one dead and about ten injured, with five still in hospital. The deceased was killed when debris from a fixed-wing drone fell on his car. A dozen apartment buildings and two private homes were damaged, and residents of some buildings were evacuated to community centres [265666].

Fires broke out at two oil terminals, including Ruchi, the city's largest, with a storage capacity of nearly 74,000 cubic metres. Ukrainian drones also damaged a data centre belonging to VKontakte — Russia's version of Facebook — and a warehouse belonging to e-commerce company Ozon covering almost 80,000 square metres, which caught fire. About 20,000 people lost electricity for several hours after damage to the Vostochnaya substation [265666].

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had resumed attacks on Russian refineries on Thursday after US President Donald Trump announced an energy truce that Russia ignored. Kyiv reports 76 Russian attacks on energy targets since then [265666]. The strikes knocked out power for tens of thousands of people overnight, with substations in central, western and southern Ukraine going down again as repair crews worked around the clock [266058].

Kyiv called the strike fair retribution for Russia's years of offensive attacks and its destruction of Ukraine's energy infrastructure [266073]. The attack paralysed a city of more than five million people for several hours, and authorities restricted operations at Pulkovo Airport for safety reasons [265666].

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defences shot down more than a thousand enemy drones overnight across fifteen regions in the European part of the country and the annexed Crimean peninsula [265666].