Ukraine launches major drone attack on St Petersburg as Russia steps up strikes

Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Russia's second-largest city, St Petersburg, overnight, targeting oil and port infrastructure in and around the city, even as Russia continued its offensive in Ukraine.

The attacks marked another escalation in the war, with both sides increasingly targeting strategic infrastructure far from the front lines.

While Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone strikes on Russian energy facilities this year, Russia has continued its missile and glide bomb attacks on Ukrainian cities.

According to Reuters, St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city faced a "large-scale" Ukrainian drone attack overnight. One of the city's oil terminals was struck, although authorities said there were no casualties and emergency services had dealt with the aftermath.

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Port and oil infrastructure targeted

Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said Ukrainian drones also struck the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk, located around 170 kilometres northwest of St Petersburg. The port is an important transport hub handling oil, grain, coal and liquefied natural gas.

Drozdenko said Russian air defence systems shot down 72 drones over the Leningrad region during the overnight assault.

According to the report, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the operation, saying Ukraine's defence forces had targeted oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war effort.

He also claimed that Ukrainian forces struck Kronstadt, a strategically important Russian naval base located near St Petersburg and more than 850 kilometres from Ukraine's border.

Russian authorities, however, did not confirm any strike on Kronstadt. Ukraine had previously targeted the naval base during an earlier drone attack in June.

Fresh casualties on both sides

Elsewhere in Russia, authorities reported additional drone attacks. The governors of Bryansk region and Russian-controlled Crimea said one person was killed in each region, while several others were injured.

Further south, the governor of Pskov region said more than 30 drones had been intercepted overnight. He reported minor damage, including at a factory in the town of Velikiye Luki, along with several injuries.

The latest Ukrainian strikes came just a day after Russia launched a deadly glide bomb attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy. The strike killed at least four people, including a five-year-old boy and his mother, and injured 27 others.

Regional Governor Oleh Hryhorov said the bomb hit a residential area packed with civilians, damaging a high-rise apartment building, shops and nearby streets. Zelenskyy shared images showing emergency workers treating the injured and buildings reduced to rubble.

Meanwhile, Russia said it had captured the eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka, a key logistics hub on the route to the last major Ukrainian-held cities in the Donbas region. The battle for the city has been ongoing since late 2025 and remains part of Russia's broader offensive across the eastern front.