Ukrainian drones unleashed early Sunday the biggest attack on St. Petersburg since the start of the war, hitting a major oil terminal and other critical targets in Russian President Vladimir Putin's hometown following the collapse of a fragile energy ceasefire.
Kyiv had refrained from hitting energy targets inside Russia for days following President Trump's announcement last week of a ceasefire on such strikes which have degraded Russia's ability to refine fuel, turned the country into a net fuel importer and pressured an already tight global fuel market.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had continued its strikes on his country's energy and oil-and-gas sectors 76 times in the past week, causing blackouts for tens of thousands of families, despite Trump's announcement, suggesting that Moscow's strikes had freed his hand to resume targeting energy infrastructure.
"The main targets of these strikes are energy facilities -- the Russians are trying to cause a blackout," Zelensky wrote on X on Sunday morning.
St. Petersburg Gov. Alexander Beglov said one person was killed, and five were injured in the drone attack, which he said damaged 12 apartment buildings and two homes. The city's airport temporarily suspended its operations, he said.
A St. Petersburg resident told The Wall Street Journal that loud explosions could be heard throughout the night even in the heart of the city. "War has come to us as well," she said. "Now we too will feel what it's like to be residents of Kyiv. I'm surprised we didn't feel it sooner."
The strikes on the St. Petersburg oil infrastructure, including an oil depot, sent huge plumes of smoke into the air. Russian air defenses downed 145 Ukrainian drones over the region, said St. Petersburg's regional governor, Alexander Drozdenko.
The strikes were the biggest against Russia since an increasingly public souring of relations between Zelensky and the White House over the last weeks as the Ukrainian president has criticized steps Trump has taken recently that appear favorable to Moscow, even as the Kremlin said it hadn't agreed to the president's energy ceasefire.
On Oct. 9, Trump said in a social-media post that he had struck a deal to import diesel from Russia to lower fuel prices, which have remained persistently high due to Iranian pressure on the Strait of Hormuz. Trump has also waived most sanctions against Russia under a bipartisan law, and called for Zelensky's removal from office.
Trump had complained to Zelensky about Ukraine's strikes on Russian refineries for several weeks, holding them responsible for high fuel prices that Republicans fear could hurt them in the ballot box for the midterm congressional elections in early November, the Journal previously reported.
Ukraine has also said it has started to face restrictions on its military-grade Starlink terminals, crucial to its military operations. It wasn't immediately clear what had caused the disruption.
The Ukrainian president has publicly criticized Trump, pushing back against his American counterpart's dealings with Moscow.
"Peace never comes through weakness," said Zelensky following Trump's announcement of a diesel deal reached with Moscow. "This is a weak decision, unfortunately, a weak decision by strong partners."
The attack on St. Petersburg was part of a broader campaign over the weekend. Russia's Ministry of Defense said on Sunday that it had intercepted more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones across the country, including the Moscow region.
In addition to the city's oil facilities, Ukraine drones targeted a data center belonging to Russia's social network VK and a warehouse of online marketplace Ozon. Russian users of VK complained of service disruption following the attack, while the social-media platform said its services were available as usual.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia ?is responding to Ukrainian attacks with systematic, massive strikes, the country's state-media TASS news agency reported following the Ukrainian attack.
"The Kyiv regime is resisting. But this cannot change the course of events," Peskov said.
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