Ukraine launches intense attack on St. Petersburg, hitting oil terminal, data center and logistics center

In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Ukrainian armed forces launched a harsh bombardment against the industrial fabric of the Russian region of Leningrad and Saint Petersburg. Their drones have reached the oil terminal in Russia's second largest city, a vKontakte (VK, a large social network) data center, and a logistics center for the Ozon online sales market.

This attack is part of a large wave of Ukrainian drones. The Russian Ministry of Defense claims to have shot down 1,015 unmanned devices in its space between eight in the afternoon on Saturday and eight in the morning on Sunday.

At least one person has died and five more were injured during the bombings, as announced by the governor of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Beglov. The head of the Baltic region, Alexander Drozdenko, noted that its anti-aircraft systems hit 144 drones in its territory.

Ukraine thus continues its campaign against the Russian oil industry despite threats from US President Donald Trump. Hydrocarbons are one of the main sources of income that sustains the war unleashed by the Kremlin, while the North American leader desperately needs to lower the price of fuel to try to revive his popularity in the face of the mid-term elections in November. To this end, Trump has just vetoed the latest oil sanctions of his Congress against Russia.

The St. Petersburg terminal (the second largest Russian city) is one of the largest cargo facilities in the Baltic Sea with a capacity of 12.5 million tons per year. The fire shown in the videos taken by neighbors from different parts of the city confirmed that it had been hit. The Ukrainian military company Fire Point has publicized that the attack was carried out by FP-1 drones.

The Ukrainian army also reached the Ruchi oil depots during the early hours of the morning, where the bombs caused a fire.

The drone threat also forced the temporary closure of Pulkovo airport and some sections of the highway that circles Saint Petersburg. Dozens of flights were canceled or suffered delays in a black week for Russian commercial aviation due to the presence of Ukrainian unmanned aircraft.

VKontakte, a rival to Facebook and founded in 2006 by the creator of Telegram, Pável Dúrov, is today in the hands of businessmen close to the Kremlin. Its press department has confirmed that its servers were bombed and some users claim to have noticed interruptions on the platform, according to the Astra channel.

Ukraine's campaign against the Russian economy continues as President Vladimir Putin tries to show Trump that his forces maintain the initiative. However, its own nationalist channels deny the announcements of its high command.

The Chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, declared in a meeting with Putin this Saturday that his army has captured Dobropilia and other settlements in the Donetsk region, in addition to taking more than 2,000 prisoners. The Russian leader affirmed that this supposed conquest was a “significant event” to open a gap in the region, one of the Kremlin's inalienable objectives in its almost five years of war.

“It doesn't even make sense to analyze all this,” denounced a well-known Russian military channel on Telegram, Voyenni Osvedomitel. This medium stressed that a video released by its Ministry of Defense had been created with artificial intelligence, and provided as an indication the unrealistic way of waving the Russian flag by a soldier. "They have sold Putin another Sviatogorsk, another Kupiansk! It's a shame!" claimed another ultranationalist channel linked to the former Wagner Group, Alex Parker Returns.