Oil facilities burned in St. Petersburg as Kyiv and Moscow traded strikes and disagreements deepened over U.S. efforts to curb the war.
KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine launched one of the largest drone offensives of the war against Russia on Sunday, with Russian authorities reporting more than 1,000 incoming drones as fires broke out at oil facilities in St. Petersburg and tensions deepened between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump.
The attacks marked another escalation in the campaign against energy and industrial sites inside Russia and came as Trump pressed Kyiv to curb attacks on Russian oil infrastructure. The dispute has become part of a broader disagreement over sanctions, intelligence support and the terms of U.S.-led efforts to end the war. Trump has defended delaying new sanctions on Moscow, while Zelenskyy says easing pressure on Russia gives President Vladimir Putin more room to continue fighting.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, Russian-occupied Crimea and the Black Sea. The figure could not be independently verified. In St. Petersburg, Gov. Alexander Beglov said fires broke out at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi oil depot. A logistics center operated by retailer Ozon and a data center belonging to Russian technology company VK were also targeted, the companies confirmed. Beglov said one person was killed and five others were wounded in the attacks.
Authorities in the surrounding Leningrad region also reported damage to two transformer substations in Yanino. Gov. Alexander Drozdenko said about 20,000 people were without electricity Sunday morning. The scale of the assault underscored Ukraine’s growing use of long-range drones to reach energy, logistics and other facilities hundreds of miles from the front lines.
The renewed strikes came a week after Trump said Russia and Ukraine had agreed to what he described as an “energy ceasefire.” The U.S. president offered few details about the arrangement, and fighting around energy infrastructure continued. Ukraine initially said it was observing the proposed pause but later resumed attacks on Russian oil facilities after accusing Moscow of continuing large-scale strikes against the Ukrainian power system.
Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had attacked Ukrainian energy, oil and gas facilities 76 times during the week since Trump’s announcement. He said overnight strikes hit energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions and left tens of thousands of households without electricity. Earlier in the week, Zelenskyy said Russia had launched about 1,000 drones over roughly a day and a half during several waves of attacks, adding to pressure on Ukraine’s air defenses as winter approaches.
Russia also continued attacks inside Ukraine over the weekend. Local officials said a woman was killed in Zaporizhzhia and a 6-year-old girl was among those wounded in Russian strikes. The continuing exchanges have raised doubts about whether a limited halt in attacks on energy infrastructure can hold while both sides accuse the other of violating or ignoring the proposed arrangement.
The military escalation unfolded alongside a worsening public dispute between Trump and Zelenskyy. Trump said Sunday that he had held off on implementing new sanctions against Russia because he did not want to drive Moscow away from negotiations. He also criticized Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure and accused Zelenskyy of not wanting to end the war. Zelenskyy, speaking separately on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” argued that waiving sanctions would strengthen Russia’s ability to continue its invasion and said it would be a historic mistake for Washington to move closer to Moscow.
Zelenskyy also said U.S.-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being blocked for a period, another issue that has highlighted Kyiv’s continuing dependence on American support. The Ukrainian president said Sunday that he had spoken with U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about an Oct. 9 meeting between American and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Miami and about what he described as the next steps in diplomacy.
The drone operation also caused concern beyond Russia and Ukraine. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret after a drone entered Lithuanian airspace on Sunday, prompting an air raid warning. Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said Russian electronic warfare may have diverted drones during an operation against targets in Russia. Lithuania reported that a drone entered the northern Pasvalys region and damaged a moving vehicle, though no injuries were reported. Ukraine said it would cooperate with Lithuanian authorities to determine what happened.
Despite continuing diplomatic contacts, there was no confirmed broader ceasefire Sunday. Russia and Ukraine continued striking each other’s infrastructure while Trump and Zelenskyy publicly disagreed over sanctions and pressure on Moscow, leaving both the military conflict and Washington’s effort to negotiate an end to it unresolved.
Author note: Last updated October 18, 2026.