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Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits St Petersburg Oil Terminal, Killing One and Injuring Five

Governor Alexander Beglov said fires broke out at the oil terminal, an oil depot and warehouses in St Petersburg, and VK said its data centre in the Leningrad region was attacked.

By Orbit Post3 min read
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Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits St Petersburg Oil Terminal, Killing One and Injuring Five
Photo: Bestalex, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Petersburg._Western_High-Speed_Diameter_over_the_Kanonerskiy_island,_March_2021_(1).jpg)

Key points

  • One person was killed and five people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg, the city governor, Alexander Beglov, said on Sunday, October 18, 2026, according to Reuters.
  • Fires were also reported in four districts of the city, the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts, and operations at Pulkovo Airport were restricted, SFG Media reported.
  • The Russian e-commerce company Ozon said its logistics hub in St Petersburg was on fire, Reuters reported.

One person was killed and five people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on St Petersburg, the city governor, Alexander Beglov, said on Sunday, October 18, 2026, according to Reuters. Beglov said fires had broken out at the St Petersburg oil terminal, at an oil depot and at industrial warehouses after the overnight attack on Russia's second city.

Fires were also reported in four districts of the city, the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts, and operations at Pulkovo Airport were restricted, SFG Media reported. About 20,000 people in St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region were left without electricity, the outlet said. Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 135 drones had been shot down over the region, and that residential buildings and vehicles were damaged and power was cut in several districts.

Oil terminal, warehouse and data centre hit

The Russian e-commerce company Ozon said its logistics hub in St Petersburg was on fire, Reuters reported. The internet company VK said its data centre in the Leningrad region had been attacked by drones, and said its services were available to users as normal. VK confirmed the strike on its data centre in a statement quoted by SFG Media.

Russia's Defence Ministry said air defence units had shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, Reuters reported. That national total is separate from the regional count given by Drozdenko for Leningrad region. Early on Sunday, Russian state outlet RT reported at least 126 drones shot down outside St Petersburg and fires at the oil terminal, and said at that stage there were no casualties. The governor's later statement, reported by Reuters, gave the first confirmed death.

A second front in the data centre war

The attack came on the same night that Russia fired a ballistic missile and 180 drones at Ukraine, cutting power in Vinnytsia region, according to Ukraine's Air Force. Ukraine has struck Russian data centres repeatedly in recent weeks. Ukrainian drones hit a Sberbank data centre at Balakovo on October 14, the fourth Russian data centre struck in a week, and later reporting said Ukrainian attacks had damaged three of the five major data centres powering Yandex, Russia's biggest tech group.

The Sun reported that the St Petersburg strike appeared to be the biggest attack of the war so far on the city, and that it came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told President Donald Trump to put more pressure on President Vladimir Putin, and not on Ukraine. Trump has demanded a halt to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil sites. No official Ukrainian claim for the St Petersburg attack was included in the Reuters or SFG Media reports cited here.

What happens next

Fire crews were still working at the oil terminal and other sites on Sunday morning, according to the reports. Officials had not given a full damage assessment for the terminal, the oil depot or the Ozon hub when the governor's statement was published, and it was not clear how long the power cuts or the airport restrictions would last.

Timeline

  1. Oct 14, 2026Ukrainian drones hit a Sberbank data centre at Balakovo, the fourth Russian data centre struck in a week.
  2. Oct 18, 2026Early reports from RT said at least 126 drones were shot down outside St Petersburg, fires had broken out at the oil terminal, and no casualties had been reported at that stage.
  3. Oct 18, 2026Governor Alexander Beglov later said one person had been killed and five injured, with fires at the oil terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses, Reuters reported.

Sources