Ukrainian drones hit St Petersburg oil terminal and nearby port | Russia

Ukraine launched a massive drone strike on St Petersburg and the surrounding area overnight, hitting the city’s oil terminal and port infrastructure in the wider region.

St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city suffered a “large-scale” drone attack that hit its oil terminal. He said that there was no loss of life in the attack and that interventions were made regarding the incident.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region, said a drone had crashed into the area of ​​the Vysotsk port on the Baltic Sea, about 170 km (105 miles) northwest of St Petersburg. Oil, grain, coal and liquefied natural gas are handled at the port.

Drozdenko said that 72 UAVs were shot down in the region and minor damage occurred in many settlements. He did not provide information about the blow to the port of Vysotsk.

In a post on Telegram, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as part of Ukraine’s “long-term sanctions” against Russia.

Zelenskyy said: “Ukraine’s defense forces hit the port oil infrastructure that provides revenue for Russia’s war and also hit Kronstadt, a key military target 850 km (530 miles) from the Ukrainian state border.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the attacks on energy facilities as “not critical.”

There was no confirmation from Russia of an attack on Kronstadt, a major naval base near St Petersburg that Ukraine also targeted in last month’s attack.

Ukraine has intensified attacks on Russian energy infrastructure this year, severely damaging refineries and causing oil shortages in 11 time zones of the country.

The governor of Russia’s Bryansk region and the governor of Crimea appointed by Russia said that one person died in each region and many people were injured in drone attacks.

The governor of the Pskov region, south of St Petersburg, said more than 30 drones were shot down overnight. It reported minor damage and injuries, including to a factory in the town of Velikiye Luki.

Zelenskyy also denied Russian claims that the eastern city of Kostiantynivka was captured by Moscow’s army.

Russia’s military told President Putin on Friday that its forces had taken control of the city, a long-sought goal in the Kremlin’s advance in the Donetsk region.

Zelenskyy wrote about X: “Of course this is not true. This is just another Russian lie, some kind of attempt to generate news.”

“If Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, maybe [the Russian president, Vladimir] “There will be no problem for Putin to meet me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war.”

The Ukrainian general staff also said that Kostiantynivka remained under the control of Ukrainian forces.

The following statements were made in the statement: “Military units and sub-units of the 19th Corps of the Eastern Group continue to conduct defensive operations on designated lines within the town and in the regions approaching it.”

Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key settlements that form a defensive line at the center of Ukraine’s effort to hold the last part of the heavily industrialized Donetsk region.

The Russian defense ministry also claimed the capture of five villages in eastern Ukraine: Shyikivka, Novyi Myr, Cherneshchyna and Druzhelyubivka in the Kharkiv region and Vasylivka in the Donetsk region.