Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia overnight into Sunday 18 October, one of the largest aerial strikes of the war. Russia's Defence Ministry said it neutralised 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, a figure that has not been independently verified.
The damage near St Petersburg
In St Petersburg the targets included the city's oil terminal, the Ruchi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district. Governor Alexander Beglov called the attack massive and said at least one person was killed and five injured, and that several residential buildings and two houses were hit. Those are the governor's figures. Firefighters were battling fires, an online retailer reported a fire at its logistics hub in the city, and a social network said drones attacked its data centre in the wider Leningrad region, though its services stayed available. The city's main airport restricted operations for safety reasons, disrupting flights.
Leningrad's governor, Alexander Drozdenko, said 145 drones were shot down and that about 20,000 people lost power. His claims are unverified, and no estimate has been given of any loss of oil output or refining capacity.
Washington's reaction
President Donald Trump criticised Ukraine's strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. On Sunday he defended his Friday decision to hold off new sanctions on Russia, saying he did not want to do anything that would foolishly drive Moscow away from the bargaining table. He said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not want to end the war.
Trump announced an energy ceasefire on 11 October without giving details, and Zelenskyy later said he was done with it. Zelenskyy says Russia attacked Ukraine's energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week after the announcement, and that energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions were hit overnight. He argued that waiving sanctions would strengthen Vladimir Putin's war effort, said US-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being blocked for some period, and said he had spoken with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about next steps in diplomacy. These are Ukrainian claims.
Russian strikes on Ukraine
In Kyiv, a Russian air strike killed a woman, hit a subway station and damaged a 25-storey residential building, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko, and three others were injured. In Zaporizhzhia two attacks killed a woman and wounded at least two people, including a six-year-old girl, local officials said. In Volyn, strikes on homes killed two and injured 12, including two children, Zelenskyy said. He said Russia used almost 2,700 attack drones, 1,700 aerial bombs and 66 missiles, most of them ballistic, over the past week. That figure is unverified.
No Russian response beyond the Defence Ministry's interception figure and the regional governors' statements has been published.
