One killed as fires hit two St Petersburg oil sites in drone attack

One person was killed and five others were taken to hospital after an overnight drone attack on St Petersburg, the city’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said on Sunday. Firefighters were tackling blazes at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot, he said. [2]

Beglov said 12 blocks of flats and two private houses in the city were damaged. Residents evacuated during the night were returning home, while crews were also fighting fires at industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district, he said. [2]

The attack reached other businesses. Ozon confirmed that a drone had struck its logistics centre, causing a fire, and said its staff had been evacuated without injury, according to the BBC. [1] VK confirmed an attack on its data centre in the surrounding Leningrad region, Deutsche Welle reported. VK said its services were operating normally, although outage-monitoring sites recorded a surge in complaints about VKontakte. [4]

Russia’s defence ministry said it had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones overnight across 15 Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the Black Sea — a figure covering a far wider area than St Petersburg. [3] Associated Press described the strikes as Ukrainian; Kyiv had not commented on the St Petersburg attack when the BBC reported it on Sunday. [1] [3]

Ukraine said last week that it had resumed strikes on Russian oil facilities after a three-day pause. [3] The extent of the damage at St Petersburg’s two oil sites, and whether the fires disrupted oil shipments, remains unclear.