Ukraine launched a large-scale overnight drone attack on energy and military infrastructure near Russia's second-largest city of St Petersburg, striking a major oil terminal and targeting the Kronstadt naval base, as Kyiv escalates its campaign against Russia's fossil fuel revenues. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the operation as part of Ukraine's "long-range sanctions" against Russia, saying his forces hit "port oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war" at a distance of more than 850 kilometres from Ukraine's border.
St Petersburg's governor, Alexander Beglov, confirmed the city had been subjected to a "massive" drone attack that struck its oil terminal, though he reported no casualties. The governor of the surrounding Leningrad region said 72 drones were shot down overnight and that the port of Vysotsk — located on the Baltic Sea, about 170 kilometres north-west of St Petersburg — had also been hit. That port, which hosts a major Lukoil oil terminal and handles oil, grain, coal, and liquefied natural gas, sustained damage, though the full extent remained unclear. There was no Russian confirmation of a strike on Kronstadt, a strategically significant Baltic Fleet base, though Ukrainian military sources said it was hit. Video posted by Zelenskyy showed a drone approaching a target followed by large plumes of black smoke.
The attack is the latest in an intensifying Ukrainian campaign against Russian energy infrastructure. Independent energy analysts say Ukrainian strikes have disrupted roughly one-third of Russia's oil refining capacity, while Kyiv claims as much as 43 percent has been disabled — a figure that has not been independently verified. The pressure has been significant enough that President Vladimir Putin last week made a rare public acknowledgement of domestic fuel shortages, and on Saturday he signed legislation aimed at stabilising the country's domestic fuel market. Petrol export bans have been extended, and sales restricted in more than 40 Russian regions and Crimea, with long queues reported at filling stations in Moscow.
Putin nonetheless dismissed the latest strikes as "not critical" and gave no indication of changing course. Russia's defence ministry claimed its forces had shot down more than 500 Ukrainian drones and missiles in total and said the attacks were Zelenskyy's attempt to distract attention from a major Russian strike on Kyiv earlier in the week and from fighting in the eastern city of Kostiantynivka, in the Donetsk region, which Moscow claimed to have captured. Zelenskyy flatly denied that claim, and Ukraine's military said its forces continued to hold the city. Separately, drone strikes in Russia's Bryansk region and Russian-occupied Crimea killed one person in each location.
The exchange of strikes and competing narratives plays out ahead of next week's NATO summit in Turkey, with both sides seeking to demonstrate strength. Whether sustained economic pressure on Russia's energy sector can shift the Kremlin's calculus toward negotiations remains an open question. Ukraine argues that targeting oil and gas facilities is legitimate because fossil fuel exports directly finance Russia's war effort; Moscow insists the war will continue until its stated objectives are met.