Ukraine hit St. Petersburg overnight with one of its biggest drone barrages of the war

One person was killed and at least 15 were injured in a massive overnight Ukrainian drone attack on St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region, local authorities said Sunday, with fires reported at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses.

St. Petersburg's governor, Alexander Beglov, said firefighters were working to extinguish blazes at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi oil depot. Russian e-commerce company Ozon said its logistics hub in the city was on fire, and social media company VK said a data centre in the Leningrad region had been hit by drones — though it said its services were running normally.

Ukraine has not officially commented on the attack. But Ukrainian drone producer Fire Point said Sunday that the Ukrainian military had struck the VK data centre near St. Petersburg.

Russia's defence ministry said air-defence units shot down 1,015 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions overnight, while governor Beglov said 12 apartment buildings and two homes were damaged and temporary restrictions were imposed at Pulkovo Airport.

Moscow responds

The Kremlin said it would keep answering Ukrainian attacks in kind. Russia "is constantly responding to Ukrainian attacks with systematic, large-scale strikes," the TASS news agency reported Sunday, quoting Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. "The Kyiv regime is resisting. But this cannot change the course of events," he said.

The energy war

The attack marks a major escalation in the war on energy infrastructure. On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had launched 76 attacks on Ukraine's energy sector since U.S. President Donald Trump announced an "energy ceasefire" last week — and that Ukraine had paused its own strikes on Russian oil facilities for three days before resuming them earlier this week, drawing criticism from Trump.

For Canadians, the exchange is another reason oil prices sit at punishing levels. Brent crude jumped 3.7% Friday to settle at $109.86 a barrel, according to market reports — the highest since May — as the war in Ukraine and attacks around the Strait of Hormuz squeezed global supply. That pressure is heading for Canadian gas pumps and for the Bank of Canada's Oct. 28 interest-rate decision.