In brief: A Ukrainian drone attack early Sunday morning, Oct. 18, struck critical infrastructure across St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, igniting blazes at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchyi fuel depot. Drones also damaged a VK enterprise data center and an electrical substation in Novosergievka, causing social network outages and leaving 20,000 people without power. Further impacts include a fire at a 79,000-square-meter Ozon logistics hub in Kolpino and damage to a cable-stayed bridge on the Western High-Speed Diameter.

Oct. 18, 2026

A Ukrainian drone attack early Sunday morning, Oct. 18, struck fuel transshipment infrastructure, a major enterprise data center, a logistics warehouse, and a highway bridge across St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region, sparking multiple fires and knocking out power to 20,000 residents.

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov confirmed that the municipality came under attack by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) overnight, resulting in blazes across four city districts.

Beglov acknowledged impacts at the Petersburg Oil Terminal (PNT) alongside damage to additional infrastructure sites, while claiming that emergency responders had been dispatched to contain localized fires.

According to independent Russian outlet Astra, municipal emergency warning systems failed to notify residents ahead of the strikes, with alerts transmitted either after impacts had occurred or with substantial operational delays.

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis conducted by Astra verified that fires erupted at the Petersburg Oil Terminal, the Baltic region’s primary petroleum transshipment hub.

Concurrently in the city’s Krasnogvardeisky district, drone debris ignited a blaze at the “Ruchyi” oil depot. The Ruchyi fuel depot maintains an operational capacity of 3,900 cubic meters, functioning as a bulk storage and loading facility for AI-92 and AI-95 gasoline alongside commercial diesel.

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Hits on VK data center, substation, and Ozon logistics depot

The overnight assault extended across the administrative boundary into the Leningrad region, targeting corporate digital backbones and electrical distribution facilities.

In the village of Novosergievka in the Vsevolozhsk district, strike drones hit a large server data center owned by Russian technology giant VK (VKontakte).

Although VK company representatives claimed corporate services continued operating normally, users across Russia reported widespread connection dropouts and outages affecting the VKontakte social media platform and its integrated ecosystem.

Astra’s OSINT analysts established that an electrical substation located adjacent to the VK data center was also damaged during the strike.

Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed that damage to electrical distribution installations triggered emergency power cuts, leaving approximately 20,000 residents in the area without electricity.

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Separately, Russian e-commerce company Ozon confirmed that an aerial impact sparked a fire at its fulfillment center in St. Petersburg’s Kolpino district on Sofiyskaya Street.

Operating as one of Ozon’s busiest logistics facilities in northwestern Russia, the hub spans up to 79,000 square meters.

The company reported that emergency brigades contained the blaze and confirmed no personnel were injured.

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Strike on Western High-Speed Diameter bridge

Drone impacts were also recorded on municipal transport arteries. According to Astra, a drone struck the cable-stayed bridge spanning the Korabelny fairway in St. Petersburg, located roughly 4.5 kilometers from the Petersburg Oil Terminal.

The bridge forms a critical section of the southern viaduct of the Western High-Speed Diameter (WHSD), a multi-lane toll expressway connecting northern and southern sectors of the metropolis.

Municipal engineering teams were deployed to evaluate structural damage to the suspension cables and road deck.

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The multi-site strikes in St. Petersburg and Leningrad region reflect an expanding Ukrainian asymmetric campaign to degrade Russian rear logistics, petroleum transshipment, and corporate digital logistics.

The incident follows consecutive strikes on Russian technology hubs earlier in the month, including attacks that disabled Yandex data centers in Vladimir, Ryazan, and Kaluga regions, alongside reported strikes on a Sberbank data center facility in Saratov region.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/87403