Ukraine has launched a devastating attack on Vladimir Putin’s home city St Petersburg, with drones penetrating Russian air defences to strike an oil port, a power station, a major data centre, and a bridge. The attack is likely to enrage Donald Trump, whose relations with Volodymyr Zelensky are already at rock bottom.
The night sky exploded in red and yellow as Ukraine hit a key data centre, a 2,035-ft cable-stayed bridge in Russia’s tsarist capital, and a heating and power plant. One target was a major data centre linked to VK – Russia’s Facebook – with reports of massive and critical disruption to services, including cloud platforms.
Strikes on key infrastructure
Giant explosions detonated in the city’s port, which could disrupt Trump’s controversial diesel deal with Putin. The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, with a capacity of 12.5 million tons per year, was ablaze. Air defences shot down some drones, with debris igniting fires in high-rise apartment buildings in what appeared to be the biggest attack of the war on Russia’s second city, where Putin was born 74 years ago when it was called Leningrad.
One resident said: “There are such loud bangs in the Nevsky district. Should I go to a shelter? I don’t understand. It’s just very frightening.” Another said: “I can see flashes of light. I’m very frightened, there are loud explosions. I’m worried.” A woman pleaded: “Why does Putin persist with this pointless war. We’re under siege. It’s like in the history books from the Great Patriot War [WW2].”
Flight disruptions and casualties
Nearby NATO state Finland was forced to impose flight curbs as Ukraine’s long-distance drones battered St Petersburg, with airspace restricted in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. Early today, 327 flights were relayed or cancelled at St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, where staff and employees were ordered to take cover in shelters. Another 174 flights were disrupted during the night in Moscow, which has suffered more than a week of airport mayhem due to Ukrainian drones. Russian reports said that more than 200 “enemy drones” were downed attacking Moscow and St Petersburg.
The Dvortsovy Fasad residential complex was hit by downed drones during the onslaught. Four people, including three children, were injured in the Leningrad region from the drone strikes. Tens of thousands were left without electricity early today, according to reports, and mobile internet services were disrupted.
Zelensky's defiance and Russian calls for retaliation
The massive Ukrainian strike came after Zelensky told Trump to “put more pressure on Putin, and not on us. Otherwise, it would be simply unfair.” Trump has demanded a halt to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil hubs. But Zelensky warned: “Russia is trying to create a blackout in Ukraine just before winter. Russia is trying to leave millions of our people without electricity and heating. Pressure is needed to stop this. American sanctions, a weakening of pressure on the aggressor, and financial rewards for Putin only encourage him to continue the attacks. We must not give up our positions and must try to end the war. End it, not give Putin every reason to continue it indefinitely.”
The Ukrainian leader said: “Putin wants to destroy us. He doesn't respect us, our sovereignty, or our territorial integrity. He truly believes that we are not a country, not a nation. Do you really believe that he is satisfied with just the eastern part of our country? And why, when the full-scale invasion began, did he go to Kyiv? Is this about the Donbas? No, this is about the capital. Without a capital, there is no state.”
Impact and response
In devastating hits, Ukraine struck another oil depot and a major Amazon-style online marketplace. Both the Ruch'i oil depot and the giant Ozon retail logistics warehouse were engulfed in smoke and flames in what appeared to be the biggest strike of the war on Putin’s home city. Footage showed a strike on the cable-stayed 678-yard Korabelny Fairway Bridge, connecting Bely Island with Vasilyevsky Island. It was closed to traffic, and damage on the crossing was being assessed.
Russian pro-war channels vowed massive retribution on Ukraine for the huge strike. Telegram channel Pozdnyakov warned: “It's time to demand an absolutely devastating ****ing Oreshnik [hypersonic missile] strike on central Kyiv and western Ukraine to bring them to their senses…. The Ukrainians are certainly a reckless bunch. With no [functioning] air defences in Kyiv, they go and attack St Petersburg. I have a feeling the people of Kyiv are going to get absolutely hammered over the next couple of days.” Pro-war blogger Yulia Vityazeva called the Ukrainian strike “stupidity and bravado.” Zelensky was “begging for missiles and demanding that Starlink be switched back on in the evening, then spitting in Trump's face overnight and taking pride in it – only the Ukrainians are capable of that.”
Putin’s governor in St Petersburg Alexander Beglov said: “Currently, emergency services are extinguishing fires at civilian infrastructure facilities in the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeisky, and Moskovsky districts, as well as at the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal. For safety reasons, operations at Pulkovo Airport have been restricted.” More than 300 flights were shown as cancelled or delayed today in St Petersburg and Moscow, with passengers warned of huge disruptions in the coming hours.
