Ukraine's latest retaliatory strikes on Russia targeted several sites in an overnight assault, with drones hitting energy, digital and transport infrastructure.
The targets were mostly within Saint Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region, including St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, the main fuel export hub on the Baltic.
Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko of Leningrad Oblast said about 150 drones were shot down, confirming reports that the Ukrainian military launched hundreds of drones in the massive attack.
The Ruchi oil depot, a gasoline and diesel storage facility, was struck, as well as the VK data center, a major server facility of Russia’s largest social network.
The Vostochnaya substation, a 330 kV high-voltage power installation next to the data center, was damaged, leaving thousands of people without electricity.
A fire broke out after drones landed on an Ozon warehouse, a logistics hub in Kolpino. Also impacted was the Korabelny Fairway, a 620-meter-long, three-span cable-stayed expressway bridge.
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia has attacked Ukraine’s energy and oil and gas sectors 76 times since President Donald Trump announced the energy ceasefire a week ago.
In a post on X, Zelensky cited Saturday's strikes on substations in the Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi, and Odesa provinces, with tens of thousands of families still without power.
The President added that there was a strike on an agricultural enterprise in Volyn on Sunday, while new hits on residential buildings across regions killed two people and injured 12.
Russia, he noted, attacked Ukraine with 2,700 drones, 1,700 aerial bombs, and 66 missiles over the past week. "The main targets of these strikes are energy facilities ... to cause a blackout," he wrote.
Zelensky told the United States that Moscow isn't taking reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief, but is trying to make money "as proof that their bet on war is paying off and they can keep fighting."
Ukraine hits multiple Russian sites in massive retaliatory attack