A Ukrainian drone offensive targeted oil facilities and other locations in St. Petersburg early this Sunday, the hometown of Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones across fifteen regions in the European part of the country, including the Moscow area, as reported by the agency EFE.
If the balance reported by Moscow is confirmed, it would represent one of the largest drone offensives recorded during the war.
The figure corresponds to the total number of devices that Russian authorities claim to have intercepted in various regions, not exclusively those aimed at St. Petersburg and Moscow.
The governor of Saint Petersburg, Alexandr Beglov, reported at least one person deceased and five injured as a result of the attacks.
The official stated on Telegram that emergency teams were working to extinguish fires at the oil terminal in Saint Petersburg, the Ruchi oil depot, and industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district.
In addition to the oil facilities, various reports indicated possible damage to an electrical substation, an e-commerce warehouse, a VKontakte data center, and a bridge, according to .
Not all the impacts mentioned in the initial reports had the same level of official confirmation.
The damage attributed to the attack on the Vostóchonaya substation is said to have left around 20,000 people without electricity.
Russian media described the offensive as one of the largest suffered by Saint Petersburg since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The information released during the day provided varying accounts of the injured. While Beglov reported five injured in Saint Petersburg, other reports mentioned fifteen across the affected areas of Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad region.
Attacks on energy facilities
The Ukrainian offensive once again targeted Russian oil infrastructure, one of the key objectives of Kyiv's long-range attacks during the war.
It occurred a week after Trump announced a supposed energy ceasefire on October 11, the formal acceptance of which by both parties had not been established.
In the early hours of Sunday, Russia also launched an offensive against Ukraine with more than 320 drones and missiles, according to Ukrainian reports.
The attacks targeted more than fifteen facilities across ten regions and caused severe power supply disruptions, including in the city of Vinnytsia.
Ukrainian authorities reported that more than 500,000 consumers were affected.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenski, reported that Russia had carried out at least 76 attacks against energy facilities in the week following Trump's announcement.
In total, the Russians have attacked Ukraine with nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs, and 66 missiles.
"The main objectives are the energy facilities: the Russians are trying to provoke a blackout. And America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal measures in response to the easing of sanctions or the agreements," the leader stated.
Tensions between Kyiv and Washington over sanctions on Russia
The offensive against Russian territory coincided with new tensions between Kyiv and Washington over the Trump Administration's decisions regarding the Kremlin.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order that suspended the enforcement of the sanctions established by the Lindsey Graham Act against Russia, just 29 days after having enacted it.
The legislation, approved with 86 votes in the Senate, included tariffs of up to 100% on imports from the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas.
The decision sparked criticism from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers. Republican Senator Ted Cruz called it a "mistake" and warned that "the current path, unfortunately, only benefits Putin."
His Republican colleague Thom Tillis deemed the measure "absolutely irresponsible."
Zelensky also questioned Washington's decision: "At a time when the Russians have carried out such a massive attack on our energy sector, it is unfortunate that the decision was made in the United States to completely ignore the Lindsey Graham Law, which was supposed to exert real pressure on Russia to end this war."
On his part, the Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev praised the suspension of the sanctions, describing it as "an important and truly historic moment."
The Ukrainian president indicated that the negotiating teams from Ukraine and the United States held talks on Friday and that a possible meeting between delegations could take place in the coming days.
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