What changed
An overnight drone attack hit St Petersburg’s oil terminal and Ruchyi oil depot, killing at least one person and injuring at least five. Fires were reported at both facilities; an Ozon logistics centre and VK’s regional data centre were also targeted.
Ozon evacuated staff and paused shipments from the site. VK said its services remained available. Pulkovo Airport temporarily closed, while 12 apartment buildings and two homes were damaged.
Why it matters
The strike brought the war’s energy battle into one of Russia’s major cities, far from the regions most often threatened. It also reached infrastructure that keeps goods moving and digital services running, even though the duration and scale of any disruption remain unclear.
The immediate effect is practical: Ozon’s affected site is no longer accepting seller shipments, and fires at two oil facilities could interrupt local operations. The attack also lands during a dispute over a recently announced energy ceasefire. Ukraine had paused strikes on Russian oil facilities for three days, while accusing Russia of continuing attacks on Ukraine’s energy system, before resuming its own strikes earlier this week.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility. Russia’s defence ministry said it shot down more than 1,000 Ukrainian drones overnight, but that figure has not been independently verified.
The broader pressure is building ahead of winter. Russia and Ukraine have intensified attacks on energy infrastructure, while Russian strikes have left hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without power. President Volodymyr Zelensky said tens of thousands were still without electricity and that Russia had launched nearly 2,700 drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles in the past week, most aimed at energy facilities.
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