Aerial view of the Port of Saint Petersburg, home to the Petersburg Oil Terminal, on the Gulf of Finland in November 2024

Photo: Vasilii Martynov / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Fire Hits St. Petersburg Oil Terminal in Massive Drone Attack on Russia

by

A large overnight drone attack hit St. Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region early Sunday, Oct. 18, 2026, and set off a fire at the Petersburg Oil Terminal, one of Russia’s largest fuel storage and export sites. St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said on Telegram that emergency crews were putting out a fire “on the territory of the Petersburg Oil Terminal.” Firefighters were also tackling blazes at civilian sites in four city districts. Beglov reported no deaths.

The regional news site 47news called it the most massive attack on the area since the summer, judging by the number of drones shot down. Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defenses downed 126 drones over the region, and that the attack was still going on when he posted the figure. In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 127 drones heading for the capital were shot down over the same night. Russia’s Defense Ministry had not released a nationwide total when this article was published. St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport halted flights and moved passengers and staff to shelters.

Aerial view of the Port of Saint Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland, with docks, cranes and residential blocks in the foreground, photographed in November 2024
An aerial view of the Port of Saint Petersburg and the Gulf of Finland, taken in November 2024. The Petersburg Oil Terminal sits in the port area. This photo was taken before the attack. Photo: Vasilii Martynov / Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

What officials have confirmed

In his Telegram posts, Beglov said the city had come under attack overnight and that air defenses were working. He said fires had broken out at “civilian infrastructure” sites in the Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts, and separately at the oil terminal. He also warned residents that mobile internet service could be disrupted. According to Kommersant, Beglov said an emergency task force was working in the city.

Drozdenko first declared a drone threat over the Leningrad region at about 1:28 a.m. Moscow time (6:28 p.m. Saturday in Boston, EDT). His tally rose through the night, from 11 drones to 57, then 95, then 126. He said drone debris fell on an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk and on a private house near Kirovsk. Debris also damaged four cars in a parking lot in Nizino, in the Lomonosov district, where a fire broke out. Falling debris hit power lines, causing short power outages. Neither governor reported any injuries.

VK, the Russian social media and technology company, said in a statement reported by RIA Novosti that one of its data centers in the Leningrad region had been attacked, and that its services were running normally.

Pulkovo Airport restricted arrivals and departures during the attack. In a statement quoted by local outlets, the airport said passengers had been “sent in an organized way to safe shelters” and given water and mats while they waited. The regional news site 47news noted that the airport had not published similar notices during earlier attacks. In the Moscow region, Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports also suspended flights for part of the night.

What remains unverified

Photos and videos circulating on Telegram show a large fire with thick black smoke rising behind apartment blocks at night. One widely shared image, watermarked by the Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+, was taken from a residential street and shows flames and a smoke column near the port. The Kyiv Independent published footage from the same channel and said it could not independently verify the targets or the extent of the damage.

Footage shared on X:

Exilenova+ and another monitoring channel, Supernova+, reported that the attack targeted port infrastructure, oil tankers and a data center. Ukrainian outlet UNN, citing local channels, reported that a storage tank was burning at the oil-loading port. Russian officials have confirmed a fire at the terminal but have not said whether any tanks, berths or ships were damaged. Ukraine’s General Staff had not commented on the attack at the time of publication. The Boston Report could not independently confirm the extent of the damage at the terminal.

Why the Petersburg Oil Terminal matters

The Petersburg Oil Terminal sits in the Great Port of St. Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland, in the city’s Kirovsky district. It stores and ships petroleum products that arrive by rail, river and road, and it has a reported capacity of about 12.5 million tons a year, according to the Kyiv Independent. It is separate from Russia’s two big Baltic crude and fuel export ports, Primorsk and Ust-Luga, which lie farther west along the gulf.

This is not the first strike on the terminal. On July 4, 2026, Beglov said the Kirovsky district facility was hit during a drone attack in which 72 drones were shot down. President Volodymyr Zelensky then described the strike as hitting “port oil infrastructure that is funding the Russian war,” according to the Kyiv Independent. The BBC later verified that the terminal had been hit.

Ukraine’s campaign against Russian oil exports

Ukraine has carried out long-range drone attacks on Russian refineries, depots and export terminals for much of the war. Kyiv says these sites are legitimate targets because oil and fuel exports fund Moscow’s military. In late March 2026, attacks on Primorsk and Ust-Luga halted oil loadings at both Baltic ports for more than a week, Reuters reported. Satellite images later reviewed by Reuters showed Primorsk had lost about 40% of its storage capacity.

The latest attack comes a week after President Donald Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine on Oct. 11, without publishing its terms. The Kremlin later said the scope of the arrangement had not been set, and both sides have since accused each other of striking energy facilities. For running figures on the war, see The Boston Report’s Ukraine War statistics tracker. For background on the truce, read our report on the energy ceasefire’s first days and on U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg’s comments on refinery strikes.

Reactions

Beglov called the attack an assault by “Ukrainian Nazis” using military drones and said there were no fatalities. Russian state outlet RIA Novosti, in its report on the attack, repeated the Defense Ministry’s standard statement that Russian forces respond by striking “decision-making centers,” enterprises and depots in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials had not publicly claimed or commented on the St. Petersburg attack as of early Sunday, Oct. 18. The Boston Report will update this story when Kyiv, Russia’s Defense Ministry or independent outlets release more details on the scale of the attack and the damage at the terminal. More coverage is on our Warfare and Geopolitics pages.

Sources

Read next in Warfare

Like this story? Get the newsletter

New Boston Report stories delivered to your inbox, with links to the full articles.

Free. Confirm by email, unsubscribe anytime. Signups are handled by Jetpack/WordPress.com. Privacy Policy

Most read this week

  1. Understanding Crude Oil Types and Their Uses in Fuel Production
  2. NATO Theory of Victory: Gen. Grynkewich Outlines Block, Blunt, Break Plan
  3. US-China 30-for-30 Tariff Deal: What Is Agreed and What Is Not
  4. 2026 Midterm Elections: Control of Congress, Key Dates and What to Watch
  5. Russia and the Brazil Election: Allegations, Evidence and Denials

Latest

  1. Patriots vs Jets: A.J. Brown Returns as 3-2 Pats Host Week 6
  2. Amelia Earhart Search: Weather Stalls Nikumaroro Expedition
  3. Taiwan Plans $4 Billion Texas Park for AI Chip Suppliers
  4. Sony Weighs Releasing All Four Beatles Films on One Day
  5. Astronomers Find the First Green Star, a Rare White Dwarf
All latest news →