Ukraine Hits St Petersburg Oil Terminal in Major Drone Attack

Ukraine launched a massive drone attack on Russian territory during the early hours of Wednesday, striking Saint Petersburg's oil export terminal while the city hosted the International Economic Forum, a major annual conference organized by President Vladimir Putin. Russian air defenses intercepted 354 Ukrainian drones across multiple regions, including border areas and annexed Crimea, with 50 drones downed in the Leningrad region alone, according to Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko. The attacks included a drone strike on a civilian bus traveling from Moscow to Simferopol in annexed Crimea, which killed seven people and injured 11 others in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian region of Donetsk. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted that the oil terminal target lies 1,100 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, and announced additional strikes against a military base in Kronstadt and an arms manufacturing facility in Tambov, some 500 kilometers south of Moscow. The escalation follows Russia's massive bombardment of Ukrainian cities on Tuesday, when 73 missiles and 656 drones killed at least 20 people across multiple cities including Kyiv and Dnipro. Putin justified the Russian attacks by claiming Zelensky brought the war to a "new dimension" with a strike on a university residence in Donbas that killed 21 young people. In Kherson, an 86-year-old woman was killed in a separate Russian drone attack, according to local authorities.