Ukraine strikes St Petersburg oil terminal in deep drone attack

Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg’s oil terminal overnight Saturday in one of Kyiv’s deepest strikes into northwestern Russia, more than 500 miles from Ukraine’s border. Russian officials said a local port and oil infrastructure were struck in the city and the surrounding Leningrad region. Volodymyr Zelensky cast the attack as a blow to infrastructure “that generates revenue for Russia’s war,” framing the raid as part of a campaign aimed at Moscow’s finances as much as its front lines.

St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city of about 6 million people was subjected to a “large-scale” drone attack. He said there were no casualties and that the aftermath had been dealt with. Russian reports said the St Petersburg Oil Terminal was hit, putting one of the country’s largest fuel handling sites into the center of a war that has increasingly moved from trenches and artillery to rail yards, refineries and export terminals.

The terminal matters because it sits inside a wider energy system that still helps bankroll Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian reporting has described it as one of the largest oil terminals in Russia and a key Baltic hub for exporting petroleum products, with tankers sending fuel to Africa, the Middle East and other regions. Striking that node does more than damage a single facility: it threatens throughput, insurance, shipping schedules and the reliability of a revenue stream that the Kremlin depends on as the war enters its fifth year.

Zelensky also said the attack hit Kronstadt, which he described as an important military target. Photos and videos from the area showed smoke and fire near the port zone, underscoring the reach of the drone assault into a heavily symbolic part of Russia’s northwestern coast. South of St Petersburg, the governor of the Pskov region said more than 30 drones were shot down overnight, while Russian regional authorities reported minor damage and injuries elsewhere in the northwest.

The pattern fits Ukraine’s broader campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. Recent waves of strikes on oil facilities have already helped create a fuel crisis inside Russia and increased political pressure on Vladimir Putin’s government. By taking aim at export terminals as well as refineries and storage sites, Ukraine is trying to translate battlefield pressure into economic strain that reaches far beyond the blast site.