Russia-Ukraine War: St. Petersburg oil depot hit by drone and caught fire

Relevant Russian authorities released news that St. Petersburg was attacked by a large-scale Ukrainian drone. Leningrad Governor Alexander Drosdenko said that Russian air defense forces shot down 126 drones. The attack killed one person and injured five others. Debris from the drone crashed onto homes, cars and power lines and caused power outages. Drozdenko said it was a "large-scale drone attack" and that air defense operations were still ongoing.

Alexander Begolov, the mayor of the Russian metropolis St. Petersburg, said that a Ukrainian drone hit an oil storage warehouse in the city and caused a fire. In June this year, the oil depot was attacked once. Begolov said: "The air defense system is still performing its tasks." He said that due to safety concerns, operations at St. Petersburg Airport have been restricted and passengers and staff have been evacuated to safe areas.

Fires were also reported at other industrial facilities around St. Petersburg. Russian online merchant Ozon said its logistics center in St. Petersburg caught fire. Internet company VK claimed that its computing center in the Leningrad region was also attacked by drones, but the company was still operating normally. VK is the most popular social media operator in Russia.

A number of other areas within Russia were also apparently hit by airstrikes. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced in Moscow that last night and this morning, Russian air defense systems shot down and intercepted a total of 1,015 Ukrainian drones in different areas.

Ukraine comes under air strikes again

Russia's air strikes in Ukraine also continue. Russia’s air strikes, mainly drones, have caused losses in many cities in Ukraine. The power supply system was attacked and at least two people were killed.

Ukraine's military said a woman was killed and another woman and a girl were injured in a Russian attack on the southeastern city of Zaporozhye. Two apartment buildings, 18 cars and an educational institution were damaged. The Ukrainian authorities did not further elaborate on what weapons Russia used.

A drone attack killed one woman and injured four others in the central Ukrainian city of Poltava. Nine residential buildings in the city were damaged, some of the damage caused by the wreckage of a downed drone.

The Ukrainian military also said Russian attacks on critical infrastructure in Vinnytsia Oblast in western Ukraine resulted in a power outage. The Ukrainian Air Force stated that the Russian army dispatched 180 drones in this round of attacks on China, 152 of which were successfully intercepted, and approximately 20 locations were hit by drones.

Baltic countries sound air defense alert

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has once again affected the Baltic countries. The three Baltic countries are all members of NATO and the European Union. Lithuania's National Emergency Center stated that due to the discovery of UFOs, the country once asked people in central and northern regions to enter underground shelters. At the same time, NATO interceptor aircraft took off and Kaunas Airport was temporarily closed.

Latvia also once issued an alert for some border areas on the grounds of discovering "potential threats."

Over the past few months, Baltic states have repeatedly spotted Ukrainian drones entering their airspace. The Kiev government claimed that Russian jamming devices caused the drones to veer off course. These incidents have heightened concerns that the Russo-Ukrainian war could spread to the territories of NATO member states.