U
kraine launched one of its largest drone assaults on Russia overnight Sunday, targeting oil facilities and industrial sites in St. Petersburg and leaving at least one person dead, Russian officials said, as a growing dispute between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump threatens to complicate efforts to end the war.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces intercepted or neutralized 1,015 Ukrainian drones across 15 Russian regions, Russian-annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov described the attack as massive, saying fires broke out at the city’s oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the southern Kolpinsky district.
At least five people were injured, while several apartment buildings and two houses sustained damage, according to Beglov.
The strikes also disrupted operations at St. Petersburg’s main airport, where authorities imposed temporary flight restrictions over safety concerns.
Elsewhere in the region, Russian e-commerce giant Ozon reported a fire at its logistics facility, while technology company VK said drones had struck its data center. The company said its services remained available.
Leningrad regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones were intercepted over the region, with approximately 20,000 residents left without electricity.
The scale of the attack marks a significant escalation in Ukraine’s campaign against Russian energy infrastructure, which Kyiv has increasingly targeted as part of its efforts to undermine Moscow’s ability to finance its military operations.
The strikes come at a particularly sensitive moment in relations between Kyiv and Washington, with Trump publicly criticizing Ukraine’s continued attacks on Russian energy facilities while defending his decision to delay additional sanctions against Moscow.
On Sunday, Trump said imposing new sanctions risked pushing Russian President Vladimir Putin away from negotiations aimed at ending the conflict.
The US president also accused Zelenskyy of undermining diplomatic efforts through continued strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, claiming the Ukrainian leader did not want the war to end.
Their disagreement follows Trump’s October 11 announcement of an energy ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv, an arrangement that quickly descended into uncertainty amid continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine had temporarily refrained from targeting Russian energy facilities following the announcement, but Moscow had failed to reciprocate.
In a social media statement Sunday, the Ukrainian president said Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas infrastructure 76 times over the preceding week.
Russian strikes overnight also hit energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions, leaving tens of thousands of families without electricity, he said.
“America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Zelenskyy warned that easing economic pressure on Moscow would only strengthen Putin’s ability to continue the war.
He also revealed that intelligence sharing between Washington and Kyiv had resumed after being temporarily suspended.
While maintaining that he trusted Trump, Zelenskyy warned that any American decision to side with Russia would amount to a historic mistake.
Later Sunday, Zelenskyy said he had spoken with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the outcome of negotiations between American and Ukrainian officials in Miami on October 9, as well as potential next steps in diplomacy.
As Ukraine intensified its long-range drone campaign, Russian forces continued launching deadly strikes across Ukrainian territory.
An overnight attack on Kyiv killed a woman and injured three others, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Monday. The strikes damaged a 25-story residential building, hit a subway station and affected a medical facility.
In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, two Russian attacks Sunday killed a woman and wounded at least two other people, including a six-year-old girl, according to local officials.
Zelenskyy also reported that Russian strikes on residential buildings in the western Volyn region killed two people and injured 12, including two children.
He said Moscow had launched nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.
The intensifying attacks on both sides underscore the challenges facing Washington’s diplomatic initiative, with Kyiv demanding concrete Russian commitments before agreeing to halt strikes on energy infrastructure.
For now, the competing military campaigns and increasingly public disagreements between Trump and Zelenskyy suggest that efforts to secure even a limited ceasefire remain deeply uncertain.
(Source: Aljazeera English)
Stay informed by subscribing to
our weekly newsletter.
