Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of Kyiv’s largest aerial offensives of the war, setting oil facilities ablaze, disrupting major transport hubs, and leaving thousands of residents without power. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov reported that firefighters were battling blazes at the St Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot, and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district south of the city following the Sunday attacks.
The massive strike resulted in at least one fatality and five injuries, while several residential buildings and two houses were also hit. The aerial assault disrupted flight operations at St Petersburg’s main airport, forcing authorities to restrict traffic for safety reasons. Major commercial operations were also affected; Russian e-commerce firm Ozon confirmed a fire at its logistics hub in the city, while internet company VK reported a drone attack on its data centre in the broader Leningrad region, though normal services remained available to users.
Leningrad Governor Alexander Drozdenko stated that air defenses shot down 145 drones, leaving about 20,000 people without electricity as a result of the raid. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, a total of 1,015 Ukrainian drones were neutralized overnight across 15 Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula, and the Black Sea.
The widespread strikes coincided with a deepening rift in relations between Kyiv and Washington. US President Donald Trump criticized Ukraine’s ongoing targeting of Russian oil infrastructure while defending his Friday decision to put a hold on implementing new sanctions on Moscow. Trump argued that new sanctions would foolishly drive Moscow away from the bargaining table and undermine negotiations for a diplomatic end to the war.
Trump also lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claiming that the Ukrainian leader did not want to end the conflict. The friction followed an October 11 announcement by Trump regarding an unverified “energy ceasefire,” which Zelenskyy later repudiated. Zelenskyy stated that he was finished with the arrangement after holding off on energy strikes while Moscow continued attacking Ukrainian infrastructure. Writing on social media, Zelenskyy reported that Russia had struck Ukraine’s energy, oil, and gas sectors 76 times in the week following Trump’s announcement. He added that overnight strikes across four Ukrainian regions left tens of thousands of families without power.
Appearing on NBC’s Meet the Press, Zelenskyy warned that waiving sanctions against Russia would strengthen President Vladimir Putin’s war effort and called siding with Moscow a historic mistake for Washington, though he noted that US-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after a period of being blocked. Later on Sunday, Zelenskyy confirmed he had spoken with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner regarding diplomatic next steps following an October 9 meeting between Washington and Kyiv negotiating teams in Miami.
Meanwhile, retaliatory Russian air strikes exacted a heavy toll across Ukraine. In Kyiv, an overnight strike killed a woman, damaged a 25-storey residential building, and hit a subway station, non-residential structures, and a medical facility, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. Three other people were injured in the capital. In southern Ukraine, two Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia killed a woman and wounded at least two others, including a six-year-old girl, local officials reported.
Additional strikes hit the Volyn region, where an attack on an agricultural enterprise and residential buildings left two people dead and 12 injured, including two children. Zelenskyy stated that over the preceding week, Russian forces had targeted Ukraine with nearly 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs, and 66 missiles, the majority of them ballistic.
