Ukraine launches more than 1,000 drones in massive aerial attack

Ukrainian strikes set an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St Petersburg on Sunday as Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war.

The strikes came as tensions between Ukraine and Washington deepened, with United States President Donald Trump criticising Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and the prospect of further US sanctions against Moscow still uncertain.

Speaking on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions against Russia would strengthen Putin’s war effort. He also said US-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being “blocked for some period of time”.

Trump told reporters late Saturday that they did not know what his decision on further sanctions against Russia would be, despite signing an executive order Friday night waiving planned restrictions, citing US national interests.

Zelenskyy said that while he trusted Trump, siding with Moscow would be a tragedy and a “historic mistake” for Washington.

“People want to forget what’s going on. But we can’t give this possibility to forget, or to change reality, or to change the truth,” Zelenskyy said. “We can’t compare me and Putin. He’s aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He’s a terrorist. And that’s why I hope that President Trump will be very clear with this position.”

Later Sunday, Zelenskyy said on social media that he had spoken with US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about the results of an October 9 meeting between US and Ukrainian negotiating teams in Miami, as well as “next steps in diplomacy”.

One person was killed and five others were wounded in the St Petersburg attack, which sparked fires at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the city’s Ruchi oil depot, local Governor Alexander Beglov said. A logistics centre belonging to Russian retailer Ozon and a data centre operated by Russian tech giant VK were also targeted, the companies confirmed.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its forces had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass that Kyiv was “resisting” Moscow’s invasion but could not “change the current course of events”.

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, a woman was killed and a six-year-old girl was among at least two other people wounded in two Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said Sunday.