ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — Large fires and explosions were reported across St. Petersburg early Sunday during a large-scale Ukrainian drone attack, and the city’s governor said crews were fighting fires at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and in four other districts.
Governor Alexander Beglov reported no fatalities, according to reports of his statement. He said crews were at work in the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts, and at the terminal. Pulkovo Airport was operating under safety restrictions, and Beglov warned that mobile internet service could be interrupted.
The attack began at 2:50 a.m. local time, the Kyiv Independent reported, based on the Ukrainian monitoring channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+. Footage shot by residents showed drones overhead and air defenses firing. St. Petersburg, home to 5.6 million people, lies 856 kilometers (532 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
The early reports did not agree on how many drones had been shot down. Leningrad Oblast Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko put the early count at 57 drones downed over the region. Debris from one damaged four cars in a parking lot, he said. Later reports raised the figure sharply. TASS, citing Drozdenko, put the number intercepted in the region at 135, and another report put the number shot down at 127.
According to Exilenova+ and Supernova+, the port, oil tankers and a data center were targeted, and fires appeared to be burning at several sites. Russian state media said the targets included the oil terminal and a data center belonging to VKontakte, Russia’s largest social media company. The Kyiv Independent said it could not independently verify the targets or how much damage was done.
The terminal sits in the city’s port. It is one of Russia’s largest fuel storage and export facilities, handling a reported 12.5 million tons of petroleum products a year. Ukrainian forces hit and damaged the same terminal in an overnight attack on July 4.
Casualty reports also differed. One Swedish report said people had suffered burns and injuries from smoke inhalation, with no deaths reported, and said debris had struck apartment buildings and a parking lot, causing a major power outage. A British tabloid report, by contrast, said the governor had reported one person killed and five injured, a claim at odds with the reports of Beglov’s own statement that there were no fatalities.
The attack came the same night Russia struck Ukraine again. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russian forces launched an Iskander-M ballistic missile and 180 drones overnight, and that air defenses shot down or suppressed 152 of the drones, with impacts recorded at 20 locations.
How much damage the St. Petersburg attack caused remained unclear as officials continued their assessment.
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