An overnight barrage of Ukrainian drones targeted key infrastructure across St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region, striking an oil terminal, a commercial warehouse, and a data center in one of the heaviest air attacks on the territory since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Local authorities confirmed that one person was killed and 15 others were injured as air defenses scrambled to intercept incoming UAVs.
Leningrad regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko reported that 144 drones were brought down over the region. Falling drone debris caused fires and damaged 55 vehicles, hitting residential structures in the Gatchina district and surrounding areas. The strikes also disrupted power networks, knocking two transformer substations offline in Yanino and leaving approximately 20,000 residents across 50 apartment blocks in an outage zone while emergency crews worked to restore electricity.
Among the key facilities targeted was a data center operated by the VK social networking service in the Leningrad region. VK's press office acknowledged the attack on its facility but stated that user services continued to operate normally. Meanwhile, a fire erupted at an Ozon logistics warehouse, forcing staff to evacuate as smoke rose over the building complex and local police closed several nearby roads. Transport was further interrupted at St Petersburg's Pulkovo airport, where flight operations were suspended for more than seven hours before Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, cleared the airspace to resume flights at 10 a.m. Moscow time.
In St Petersburg proper, governor Aleksandr Beglov confirmed that civilian infrastructure facilities caught fire across the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeisky, and Moskovsky districts, as well as on the site of the St Petersburg oil terminal. Located within the Great Port of St Petersburg, the oil terminal covers an area of 442,000 square meters with 32 storage tanks and four shipping berths, giving it the capacity to process and ship 1.1 million tonnes of fuel per month. Preliminary assessments indicated no casualties occurred at the oil terminal or the impacted district facilities.
The drone strikes in northwestern Russia followed a fresh wave of Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid on Saturday night. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that Russian forces launched strikes against electrical substations across the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, and Odesa regions, leaving tens of thousands of households without electricity. Zelenskyy added that Russian bombardments on residential buildings killed two people and injured 12 others, estimating that Russian forces launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 guided aerial bombs, and 66 missiles against Ukrainian targets over the past week.
