More than 1,000 drones hit Russia, fires break out in St Petersburg

Between 20:00 on 17 October and 8:00 on 18 October, Russian air defences destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones, the Russian Defence Ministry said. Attacks were recorded in 15 regions, but the main targets appear to have been the Leningrad region and St Petersburg, where fires broke out.

According to RBC, citing officials and eyewitnesses, fire engulfed the St Petersburg Oil Terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpino district. A warehouse of the Ozon marketplace on Sofiyskaya Street and a cable-stayed bridge were damaged, and residents of the Krasnogvardeysky district report power outages. In Yanino near St Petersburg, the outlet writes, a data-centre hub of the social network VKontakte was hit.

The damaged cable-stayed bridge, according to Radio Svoboda, is part of a road artery linking the southern and northern parts of the city. The extent of the damage is not yet clear. Restoring airport operations will take at least a day, the authorities say.

Telegram channels also report a fire near a military unit by the village of Kaporskoye in the Leningrad region: according to them, it is a radar company subordinate to the 333rd radio-technical regiment. Videos of the fires have appeared on many Telegram channels.

St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said in the morning that one person was killed and five more were injured, and 12 residential buildings were damaged. The overnight attack was preceded by intensified Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory, including cities in the west of the country.

Read next
Drones Spark Fires in Russia's Ryazan, Where a Major Oil Refinery Reportedly Burns
How Ukrainian Drone Crews Caught a Faster Russian Helicopter on the Ground
Russian Drone Strike on Dnipro Train Station Kills 13, Ukrainian Officials Say

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz