Ukraine Hits St. Petersburg Oil Terminal as Russia Reports 1,015 Drones Downed, Trump Says Strikes Risk Peace Talks

Since Trump announced an energy-strike ceasefire last Sunday, Oct. 11, and then signed a waiver on Russia sanctions Friday night, the arrangement has collapsed in public. Early Sunday, Oct. 18, Ukrainian drones hit St. Petersburg.

What was hit

St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said one person was killed and five injured. Russian state media later raised the injury count to 10. Fires broke out at the Petersburg Oil Terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot and industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky District.

Two Russian companies confirmed hits on their own facilities. Online retailer Ozon said a fire broke out at its logistics center and that all employees were evacuated. VK, the parent of the VKontakte social network, said a data center in the Leningrad region was attacked but services stayed up.

Parts of the city lost power for several hours after a substation was hit, according to the Russian outlet Astra. Airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg closed for several hours.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, Crimea and the Black Sea. Local authorities said 512 of those were over the Moscow area. Leningrad regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones were shot down over his region. St. Petersburg air defenses claimed 146.

Those figures are Russian claims. The 1,015 total covers the whole country, not one city. Ukraine has not published its own count.

The Irish Times described the strike as Ukraine's largest on St. Petersburg. The Wall Street Journal called it the biggest on the city since the war began. The Ozon hit was the first Ukrainian strike on Russian logistics infrastructure since mid-September, according to the Irish Times.

Trump's response

Trump posted on Truth Social that he is negotiating peace and does not want to "drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table." He said "great progress is being made." He also wrote that Zelensky "doesn't want to end this war, and probably never did."

Zelensky rejected that. He said he spoke Sunday with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner as part of "nonstop communication" on securing peace.

Trump has repeatedly blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries for pressure on fuel markets. Those strikes have cut Russia's refining capacity, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump also approved Russian diesel imports amid the supply crunch.

Kyiv's case

Zelensky says the ceasefire never held on the Russian side. He told the public that Russia carried out more than 76 attacks on Ukrainian energy, oil and gas facilities in the past week, causing large outages. "The main targets of these strikes are energy facilities – the Russians are trying to cause a blackout," he wrote on X.

On Sunday night Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian strike killed one person and injured two in the capital, damaging a medical facility and a non-residential building.

"United States should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements," Zelensky wrote.

The Kremlin has denied any energy moratorium. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the state news agency Tass that Kyiv is "resisting" the invasion but cannot "change the current course of events."

The sanctions waiver

On Friday, Oct. 16, Trump signed an executive order waiving the application of sanctions, restrictions and duties under the Graham Act. He certified to Congress that the waiver serves U.S. national interests. Trump told reporters he did not know what his decision on further Russia sanctions would be.

Zelensky told NBC's Meet the Press that the waiver strengthens Putin's war effort and that siding with Moscow would be a "historic mistake." He said U.S.-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being "blocked for some period of time."

The waiver drew criticism from Republicans. Sen. Thom Tillis wrote on X: "It's unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day." He added that if the president wants lower energy prices, he can get there by "solving the Iran problem."

A possible summit

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, asked in Uzbekistan about a Wall Street Journal report that Putin floated a Trump-Putin-Xi meeting in a call with Trump earlier this month, said: "I think there's been talks of a meeting. I don't know if anything's been finalized."

The Kremlin said Monday that because all three leaders might attend a summit in China, the topic was "indeed mentioned," but there are no concrete proposals or agreements. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said such a meeting would "encourage Putin to continue this war."

What's unresolved

Trump's choice on additional Russia sanctions is still open, and no summit has been scheduled. Russia's air-raid campaign on Ukrainian energy continues as winter approaches. Whether Washington will again restrict intelligence sharing if Ukraine keeps hitting Russian energy sites is not something the administration has said on the record.