Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, setting St Petersburg's oil terminal and a fuel depot ablaze, as Trump accused Zelensky of not wanting to end the war after pausing new sanctions.
Ukrainian forces launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight into Sunday, setting an oil export terminal and a fuel depot ablaze in St Petersburg and striking a data centre and a logistics hub, in one of the largest aerial attacks of the war. The barrage came as the rift between Washington and Kyiv widened, with President Donald Trump accusing Volodymyr Zelensky of not wanting to end the war.
What was hit
Fires broke out at the Petersburg Oil Terminal in the city's port and at the Ruchi oil depot, according to St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov. The terminal is one of Russia's largest fuel storage and export facilities, with a reported annual throughput of 12.5 million tonnes.
Russian e-commerce group Ozon said a drone struck one of its logistics centres, prompting an evacuation and a fire. VK, the country's largest social media platform, confirmed a strike on one of its data centres, though it said services remained operational. Users reported outages across VK and affiliated platforms, according to the tracking service Downdetector.
Ukrainian monitoring channels reported the attack began around 2:50 a.m. local time on Sunday. Unverified eyewitness footage showed drones over the city of 5.6 million people, about 850 kilometres north of the Ukrainian border, as air defences engaged.
Casualties and damage
Beglov said one person was killed and five were injured, and that 12 apartment buildings and two houses were damaged. Leningrad region governor Alexander Drozdenko said 127 drones were shot down over the region, with debris damaging cars. Local health authorities later put the number of injured higher.
Russia's defence ministry said its forces destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea. These figures could not be independently verified.
In Ukraine, a Russian air strike killed one person and injured two in Kyiv overnight into Monday, according to mayor Vitali Klitschko, who said a medical facility and a non-residential building were damaged. Officials in Zaporizhzhia reported that a woman was killed and a six-year-old girl was among the wounded in two Russian attacks on Sunday. Strikes on energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions left tens of thousands of households without power, Zelensky said.
The Washington dispute
The strikes defied repeated US calls for Kyiv to halt attacks on Russian oil infrastructure. Trump wrote on Truth Social that he was "in the process of negotiating Peace" and did not want to "do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table." He again criticised Zelensky for targeting Russian refineries, alleging that "he doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did."
The remarks followed Trump's executive order on Friday night putting on hold a sweeping sanctions package passed by Congress targeting the Russian economy. Trump cited US national interests and said he could sign it later. He also pointed to Russia's limited support for Iran as a reason to avoid pushing Moscow away.
Zelensky said on NBC's Meet the Press that waiving sanctions would strengthen Putin's war effort, and that siding with Moscow would be a "historic mistake" for Washington. He said US-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being blocked for a period, while maintaining that Washington had deliberately restricted Starlink satellite access to send Kyiv a message.
Later on Sunday, Zelensky said he had spoken with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about an October 9 meeting between negotiating teams in Miami and about "next steps in diplomacy." He accused Moscow of breaching Trump's energy ceasefire 76 times and warned that Russia plans to deprive Ukrainians of heat and electricity before winter.
Pressure on Russia's oil revenues
Kyiv has targeted St Petersburg repeatedly during the war, including a strike that damaged the same oil terminal on July 4. Its long-range drone campaign has also disrupted air traffic around Moscow and damaged data centres in the capital region in recent days. Ukrainian drone manufacturer Fire Point claimed its FP-1 attack drone was used in Sunday's strike on the terminal.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov sought to downplay the impact, telling reporters that Ukrainian strikes were incapable of "changing the course of events."
Separately, a senior Russian official said shipments of Russian diesel to the US market would take 15 to 20 days once contracts are signed, following Trump's announcement of a diesel deal with Moscow last week, a move seen as an attempt to lower fuel prices before the US midterm elections. Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said commercial terms were still being negotiated.
Spillover in Europe
Lithuania said Russia was likely behind an attempted arson attack on a company hosting Starlink communication hardware, after authorities found flammable liquids at the site. Prime minister Mindaugas Sinkevicius said the firm houses nine satellite antennas supporting Ukraine's connection and described the incident as part of a hybrid war. A suspected drone also exploded over Lithuania on Sunday after triggering an alert that forced residents in northern and central areas to shelter for an hour. Ukraine's foreign ministry said it regretted the incident and that Russian electronic warfare may have diverted the drone off course.
What to watch
Whether Trump signs the deferred sanctions package, and whether the energy ceasefire he brokered survives, will shape both the battlefield and Ukraine's ability to hold its power grid through the winter. Independent verification of damage at Russian facilities remains limited, and casualty figures from both sides should be treated with caution.