Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits St. Petersburg as Russia Strikes Ukraine
A Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region on October 18, 2026, killed at least one person and injured five others, according to St. Petersburg Governor Alexandre Beglov. Al Jazeera
Firefighters were battling blazes at the St. Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district south of the city. The city's main airport restricted operations for safety reasons. Russian e-commerce company Ozon said there was a fire at its logistics hub in St. Petersburg, and internet company VK said its data centre in the Leningrad region, the area around the city, was attacked by drones.
Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones had been shot down and about 20,000 people were without electricity. Russia's Defence Ministry said 1,015 Ukrainian drones were neutralised overnight on October 17-18. Russia's TASS news agency described the attack as the largest on the St. Petersburg region in four years.
Overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine killed two people and injured 12, including two children, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on October 18. He said the strikes hit substations, facilities that help distribute electricity, in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions. Al Jazeera
Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine over the past week with almost 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles, most of them ballistic. He said that since the U.S. president announced an energy ceasefire, a proposed pause in strikes on energy sites, a week earlier, Russia had deliberately attacked Ukraine's energy and oil and gas sectors 76 times.
The exchange follows deadly strikes on both sides in recent days. Ukrainian drones killed two people and injured nine in the Moscow region on October 6 and hit a major fuel depot, according to the regional governor. Reuters Russian attacks on October 16 killed at least eight people and injured 60 across Ukraine and hit two shopping centres. Reuters On the evening of October 7, falling drone debris killed two people in a Kyiv suburb, according to Kyiv prosecutors. Zelenskyy had briefed European leaders earlier in the week on Russian strikes on energy infrastructure.
