As a result of a large-scale drone attack in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, fires broke out, infrastructure was damaged, and part of the city was left without electricity. The governor of the Leningrad Region claimed that 126 UAVs had allegedly been shot down.
This was reported by the Telegram channels Exilenova+, ASTRA and the Russian authorities.
According to Exilenova+, after multiple strikes on the site of JSC “St Petersburg Oil Terminal” in the Greater Port of St Petersburg, a fire broke out. The blaze engulfed the facility’s tank farm.
The terminal is one of Russia’s largest transhipment complexes for petroleum products on the Baltic Sea. Its throughput capacity is 10–12 million tonnes per year, and the total volume of its tank farm is 441,000 cubic metres.
The VKontakte (VK) data centre in the Leningrad Region was also hit. According to ASTRA’s OSINT analysis, a 330 kV power substation, “Vostochnaya”, is located next to the data centre and was also struck.
After the attack, users began reporting disruptions to the social network VKontakte and related services. The company confirmed a drone attack on the data centre, while stating that services remained available to users as normal.
Power supply disruptions were recorded in several districts of St Petersburg.
In addition, a drone hit the cable-stayed bridge over the Korabelny fairway, which is part of the Western High-Speed Diameter — a toll motorway linking the northern and southern parts of the city. The bridge, about 622 metres long, has eight traffic lanes. The extent of the damage is being clarified, ASTRA reported, citing OSINT analysis of a video sent in by readers.
A fire was also recorded near the “Dvortsovy Fasad” residential complex in the settlement of Strelna on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. According to ASTRA, analysts identified the location of the fire from readers’ photographs. What exactly was burning and what caused the fire has not been reported so far.
In addition, ASTRA reported damage to an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk in the Leningrad Region, about 20 kilometres from St Petersburg. The published images show destruction on the building’s upper floors.
St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov confirmed a fire on the territory of the oil terminal and reported that emergency services were working in several districts of the city. According to him, operations at Pulkovo Airport were restricted for safety reasons.