Ukrainian drones hit St. Petersburg oil terminal

Ukrainian drones struck the Petersburg Oil Terminal and a data centre in Russia’s second-largest city overnight on Oct. 18, according to Russian officials and state media, with fires reported at the port facility.

Leningrad Oblast Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said 127 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region, and that falling debris damaged four cars in a parking lot, the Kyiv Independent reported. The outlet said it could not independently verify the targets or the extent of the damage.

The attack began at about 2:50 a.m. local time, according to Ukrainian monitoring channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+ cited by the Kyiv Independent. Russian state media said the oil terminal and a data centre operated by the social network VKontakte were hit. Videos circulating online appear to show the terminal engulfed in flames and a drone striking an eight-lane bridge in the city, the Kyiv Independent said.

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the terminal was set on fire overnight on Oct. 17-18, according to bne IntelliNews. That outlet’s headline also said Russia’s defence ministry claimed 1,015 drones were downed, but the portion of the report available to us gave no breakdown of the period or regions covered.

No casualties have been reported. The Russian opposition outlet Astra reported a power substation strike, blackouts, low water pressure and a damaged apartment building, according to the Kyiv Independent. Those claims are unconfirmed. Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point claimed an FP-1 attack drone was used against the terminal. The Ukrainian General Staff was not quoted in the Kyiv Independent report.

The terminal is one of Russia’s largest fuel storage and export facilities, with a reported throughput of 12.5 million tonnes a year, the Kyiv Independent said. Ukraine also struck it on July 4. Ukrainian forces have recently hit Yandex data centres, which the outlet linked to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pledge to respond in kind to Russian attacks on Ukrainian data centres.

The strike follows the collapse of the energy-strike ceasefire announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. Zelenskyy said last week that Russia had broken that truce, as we reported on Oct. 13. Russian strikes have since continued, including attacks on 22 sites in Ukraine that killed seven people in a single day.

For Canadians, the war remains close to home through the Ukrainian-Canadian community, among the largest outside Ukraine and Russia, and through Canada’s sanctions on Russia and its support for Kyiv. The Canada-EU summit in Montreal on Oct. 29 and 30 is to be hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, with a draft joint statement pointing to announcements on digital trade, critical minerals and firefighting aircraft.

Claims on both sides about what was hit, and how badly, cannot yet be independently confirmed. Via the Kyiv Independent and bne IntelliNews.

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