Ukrainian drones reach St. Petersburg, explosions light the sky over the city
The strike pushes the range of Ukraine's campaign well beyond the refineries at Omsk, Samara and Ryazan hit in recent weeks
Published
Explosions lit the sky over St. Petersburg as Ukrainian drones reached the city, marking one of the deepest strikes yet into Russian territory.
The attack follows a string of hits on Russian energy infrastructure. One of the primary units at Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has been shut since an October 15 drone strike, according to two sources. Russia's Energy Minister, Alexander Novak, said on Wednesday that drones had hit the Saratov and Ryazan refineries. A Ukrainian official said the October 15 strike was a response to Russian missile and drone attacks that broke an energy truce pushed by Washington.
Crude oil has moved on the run of strikes.
The reach into St. Petersburg goes well beyond the energy-infrastructure targets Washington has specifically pressed Kyiv to stop hitting, and lands days after Putin played down the damage from earlier refinery strikes. Zelenskiy has said Russia shows no sign of accepting any US-brokered energy truce, and a Ukrainian official said the country had only 10 Patriot interceptor missiles as of October 7, with resupply irregular since May. The Financial Times has reported that Washington is considering unfreezing Russian assets to help revive talks, even as the strikes continue. Taken together, the widening geographic range of Ukraine's campaign, now touching one of Russia's largest cities, underlines the gap between diplomatic statements and the continued escalation on the ground.