Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits St Petersburg Oil Terminal, Killing One and Injuring 15

Updated 17:52 UTC

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he had spoken with United States envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Reuters reported. "Had a conversation with the American President's envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. Peace comes only through strength and cooperation built on trust," he wrote on X. He said the two sides discussed the results of their teams' meeting in Florida, that the teams are in virtually nonstop communication, and that they are preparing the next steps in diplomacy. CNN also reported the conversation on Sunday.

Governor Alexander Beglov said the attack in St Petersburg damaged 12 apartment buildings and two homes, The Wall Street Journal and the Press Association reported.

Ukraine apologized to Lithuania on Sunday after a drone flew into Lithuanian airspace during the overnight operation, the Associated Press reported. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said the incident may have resulted from Russian electronic diversion of drones during an operation against legitimate military targets in Russia. Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT reported that authorities warned residents in two northern counties to take cover, that a drone entered the northern Pasvalys region and damaged a moving car, and that there were no injuries.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday that the United States siding with Russia would be a historic mistake, CNN reported. He said United States intelligence sharing had been blocked for three days during ballistic missile attacks and had since been restored, and he repeated that Ukrainian access to Starlink to guide short range and battlefield drones was still curtailed. The Trump administration has denied the service is restricted. CNN also reported that 11 people were killed and nearly 50 injured across Ukraine in Russian missile and drone attacks in the 24 hours to Sunday morning, including what Ukrainian authorities called a massive attack on energy facilities in the Odesa region. The St Petersburg Oil Terminal struck overnight can handle up to 12.5 million tons a year, CNN reported, and drone maker Fire Point said there was a fire on the terminal grounds after the strike.

Local authorities raised the toll from the overnight Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg and the Leningrad region to one person killed and 15 injured, Reuters reported on Sunday, October 18, 2026. The earlier count given by Governor Alexander Beglov was one killed and five injured. Beglov said fires had broken out at the St Petersburg oil terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses. The Associated Press named the depot as the Ruchi oil depot and said Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones across Russia in one of its largest ever aerial bombardments.

Ukrainian drone producer Fire Point said the Ukrainian military had struck a VK data centre near St Petersburg, Reuters reported. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, cited by the TASS news agency, said Russia is constantly responding to Ukrainian attacks with systematic, large scale strikes. "The Kyiv regime is resisting. But this cannot change the course of events," he said.

The Associated Press also reported that Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed a woman and wounded at least two other people, including a 6 year old girl. Mykhailo Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said two apartment buildings, 18 cars and an educational institution were damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since President Donald Trump announced an energy ceasefire on October 11, the AP reported. Trump has criticised Kyiv for its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, the AP said.

One person was killed and five people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg, the city governor, Alexander Beglov, said on Sunday, October 18, 2026, according to Reuters. Beglov said fires had broken out at the St Petersburg oil terminal, at an oil depot and at industrial warehouses after the overnight attack on Russia's second city.

Fires were also reported in four districts of the city, the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts, and operations at Pulkovo Airport were restricted, SFG Media reported. About 20,000 people in St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region were left without electricity, the outlet said. Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 135 drones had been shot down over the region, and that residential buildings and vehicles were damaged and power was cut in several districts.

Oil terminal, warehouse and data centre hit

The Russian e-commerce company Ozon said its logistics hub in St Petersburg was on fire, Reuters reported. The internet company VK said its data centre in the Leningrad region had been attacked by drones, and said its services were available to users as normal. VK confirmed the strike on its data centre in a statement quoted by SFG Media.

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defence units had shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, Reuters reported. That national total is separate from the regional count given by Drozdenko for Leningrad region. Early on Sunday, Russian state outlet RT reported at least 126 drones shot down outside St Petersburg and fires at the oil terminal, and said at that stage there were no casualties. The governor's later statement, reported by Reuters, gave the first confirmed death.

A second front in the data centre war

The attack came on the same night that Russia fired a ballistic missile and 180 drones at Ukraine, cutting power in Vinnytsia region, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Ukraine has struck Russian data centres repeatedly in recent weeks. Ukrainian drones hit a Sberbank data centre at Balakovo on October 14, the fourth Russian data centre struck in a week, and later reporting said Ukrainian attacks had damaged three of the five major data centres powering Yandex, Russia's biggest tech group.

The Sun reported that the St Petersburg strike appeared to be the biggest attack of the war so far on the city, and that it came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump to put more pressure on President Vladimir Putin, and not on Ukraine. Trump has demanded a halt to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil sites. No official Ukrainian claim for the St Petersburg attack was included in the Reuters or SFG Media reports cited here.

What happens next

Fire crews were still working at the oil terminal and other sites on Sunday morning, according to the reports. Officials had not given a full damage assessment for the terminal, the oil depot or the Ozon hub when the governor's statement was published, and it was not clear how long the power cuts or the airport restrictions would last.