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Drone strike hits St Petersburg
A wave of Ukrainian long-range drones struck the St Petersburg region overnight, hitting an oil terminal and a Baltic Sea port in one of the largest deep-strike operations against President Vladimir Putin’s home city.
“air defences shot down 72 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the region”
Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defences shot down 72 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the region on Saturday, and St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said the city’s oil terminal was hit with no casualties.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces struck oil infrastructure funding Russia’s war effort and also hit the Kronstadt naval base in St Petersburg, calling it “an important military target”.
Moscow’s defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday that Russian defences had downed more than 500 aerial targets, mostly drones but also 10 Flamingo missiles.
The attack triggered widespread local disruptions, with Russian authorities briefly halting flight operations at Pulkovo Airport and throttling municipal mobile internet networks to jam the drones’ cellular-backed navigation systems.
Competing claims and retaliation
Zelenskyy framed the strikes as “long-range sanctions” against Russia, writing that “Ukraine’s defense forces struck port oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia’s war, and also hit Kronstadt, an important military target”.
Moscow’s defence ministry warned that “Zelensky’s attempt to cause damage to civilian targets in the Russian Federation will not go unanswered by the armed forces of Russia,” adding that Russian defences had downed more than 500 aerial targets.
DW reported that St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said there were no casualties, while Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine carried out the attacks intended to disrupt Russian energy revenues amid Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
The Guardian reported that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, dismissed the strikes on energy facilities as “not critical”, and it also said there was no Russian confirmation of a strike on Kronstadt.
In parallel, Russia said its forces captured the eastern town of Kostiantynivka, but Zelenskyy dismissed the claim as false, writing on X: “Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story.”
Fuel shortages and wider war
Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy infrastructure have been linked in the sources to fuel shortages, with Moscow extending petrol export bans and implementing fuel sale restrictions across more than 40 regions and annexed Crimea.
“Moscow to extend petrol export bans and implement fuel sale restrictions across more than 40 regions”
Al Jazeera said Putin acknowledged last Sunday that the attacks were causing a fuel shortage, though he described it as “not critical” and said damaged facilities were being repaired quickly.
The Al Jazeera report also said Ukraine’s General Staff claimed its attacks had disabled 42.74 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity as of early July, with eight refineries hit over the past month and more than 60 storage tanks destroyed or damaged.
DW described the St Petersburg operation as part of a broader wave of attacks across Russia, noting that the Russian Defense Ministry said 389 Ukrainian combat drones had been intercepted overnight across the country.
In Ukraine’s own account of the wider battlefield, Zelenskyy denied Russia’s claim about Kostiantynivka, while the Ukrainian military’s General Staff said “Military units and subunits of the 19th Army Corps of the Eastern Grouping continue to conduct defensive operations” within the town and on its approaches.
