STORY
Ukrainian drones struck the St Petersburg region overnight in a major long range attack on Russian energy and military infrastructure, according to Russian officials and Ukrainian sources. The assault hit an oil terminal in St Petersburg and the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk in the surrounding Leningrad region, as Kyiv continued its campaign against facilities linked to Russia’s war effort.
St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city had come under a large scale drone attack, although he did not identify specific targets. Local reports cited by Reuters said a fire had broken out at the city’s oil terminal, while Leningrad regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko said drones had struck the port of Vysotsk, around 105 miles north west of St Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland.
Drozdenko said 72 drones had been shot down over the Leningrad region. Russian officials also reported further drone activity south of St Petersburg, with the governor of Pskov region saying more than 30 drones had been intercepted overnight and that there had been minor damage and injuries, including at a factory in Velikiye Luki.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine had carried out strikes on Russian targets in the region. He said the operation had included attacks on an oil terminal and a military site in Kronstadt, a naval base west of St Petersburg.
The attack forms part of Ukraine’s wider strategy of using long range drones against Russian energy infrastructure, fuel supplies and military facilities. Ukraine has described such operations as a way of imposing costs on Russia for its continuing invasion, while Russia has accused Kyiv of targeting civilian and industrial sites inside its territory.