St Petersburg oil facilities hit in deadly overnight attack

An overnight attack on St Petersburg hit two oil facilities and left at least one person dead and at least five injured, BBC News reported on 18 October. Governor Alexander Beglov said firefighters were tackling blazes at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot.

An Ozon logistics centre and a data centre operated by social network VKontakte were also struck. Kyiv had not commented on the attack, leaving responsibility unconfirmed by Ukraine.

Beglov said 12 apartment buildings and two homes sustained damage. Pulkovo Airport temporarily closed, and the governor warned that mobile internet services could be disrupted.

Commercial facilities report drone strikes

VK confirmed that a drone had targeted its regional data centre. Although users reported outages early in the morning, the company said its services remained available normally.

Ozon said a drone strike caused a fire at its local logistics centre. Staff were evacuated without injuries, according to the company. It also said the site was not accepting sellers’ shipments because it was being used for other operational purposes.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed that more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted across Russian territory overnight into Sunday. That nationwide figure is a Russian official claim, not an independently verified count of the St Petersburg attack.

The city’s oil terminal had previously been hit in July. Ukraine has also targeted Russian commercial technology infrastructure: attacks on search company Yandex earlier in October reportedly disrupted services.

Energy truce dispute strains diplomacy

The strikes followed Ukraine’s resumption of attacks on Russian oil infrastructure earlier in the week. Kyiv had halted those attacks for three days after US President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire, while accusing Moscow of continuing its own strikes.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky alleged that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy sector 76 times since Trump’s announcement the previous week. Ukraine says its attacks on Russian oil facilities aim to reduce revenue supporting Moscow’s war effort.

Trump criticised the renewed Ukrainian strikes and called for a truce to help implement a Russian diesel supply agreement reached with President Vladimir Putin. The reporting described the US import deal as an effort to lower American energy prices, which had risen sharply during the Iran war, ahead of the midterm elections.

Zelensky criticised the arrangement as effectively financing Russia’s war effort. Trump’s temporary suspension of several sanctions against Russia also drew criticism, including from some Republicans.

Despite those tensions, Zelensky said on Telegram on Sunday that he had spoken with US negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. He said their teams remained in regular contact and were preparing further diplomatic steps.

Civilian costs rise ahead of winter

Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks on each other’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches, with Moscow’s full-scale invasion now in its fifth year. Russia maintains that its targets support Ukraine’s military, while the UN said on Friday that the first two weeks of October had been the deadliest for Ukrainian civilians in years.

Russian attacks on energy facilities have left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Zelensky said on Saturday that tens of thousands remained without power.

He also said Russia had launched nearly 2,700 drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles over the preceding week, with most aimed at energy facilities. Those figures and the assessment of their targets are attributed to the Ukrainian president.