Ukrainian Drone Attack Hits St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, Bridge, Data Center

A large-scale drone attack struck St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, and the surrounding Leningrad region overnight into October 18, 2026, according to Russian officials and Ukrainian monitoring channels. The attack began around 2:50 a.m. local time and set off fires at an oil terminal while also hitting a bridge, a data center and several residential areas.

What Was Hit

The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, one of Russia's largest fuel storage and export facilities with an annual throughput of about 12.5 million tons, caught fire during the attack. Within the terminal complex, the Ruchyi depot, which stores roughly 114,000 cubic meters of gasoline and diesel, was among the areas affected, according to Liga.net.

• St. Petersburg Oil Terminal (Ruchyi depot) — fire reported
• Cable-stayed bridge over the Korabelny Fairway — an eight-lane, 620-meter span linking Bilyi and Vasilevsky Islands
• VK (VKontakte) data center in Leningrad region — company said services stayed operational
• Civilian areas in St. Petersburg's Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts
• A private house near Kirovsk and an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk, hit by falling debris
• Four parked cars damaged and a fire started in the town of Nizino

Ukrainian drone maker Fire Point said one of its FP-1 attack drones struck the oil terminal, according to the Kyiv Independent. The outlet said it could not independently verify the targets or the full extent of the damage.

Casualties and Official Response

No deaths were reported from the attack, according to both Russian regional officials and Ukrainian-aligned monitoring sources. Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defenses shot down 126 drones over the region and that debris caused localized fires and damage to the house, apartment block and parked cars. St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov confirmed fires at multiple facilities and said an operational headquarters was coordinating the emergency response.

Pulkovo Airport, St. Petersburg's main airport, suspended all arrivals and departures from around 2 a.m., and authorities evacuated passengers and staff, according to TASS. Power outages were reported in parts of the region after drone debris damaged power lines, and some roads were closed to traffic.

Part of a Wider Campaign

The St. Petersburg strike came two days after Ukrainian drones forced the closure of all four of Moscow's major airports — Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo — on the night of October 16, with suspensions lasting up to seven hours and more than 160 flights cancelled, according to Euronews. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 94 drones were shot down over the capital that night, while four more were downed over the Leningrad region.

Euronews reported that airport closures linked to drone activity totaled 101 hours in the first two weeks of October 2026, compared with 46 hours for the whole of September. The outlet also noted that on October 9, President Vladimir Putin's aircraft was diverted to St. Petersburg because of drone activity in the area.

The St. Petersburg Oil Terminal had already been struck once before, on July 4, 2026, according to the Kyiv Independent. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian oil and energy infrastructure as the war, now in its fifth year, continues.

Background

Kyiv has increasingly targeted Russian military, energy and commercial infrastructure far from the front line as part of its strategy to pressure Moscow's war economy. Ukraine has not officially confirmed an organized campaign against Russian airports that some reports have dubbed 'Operation M&Ms,' and Euronews reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky has not authorized the military's original, more aggressive plan to shut down Russian airspace.