Ukraine conducted a significant drone attack on a major oil terminal in St Petersburg, targeting the city’s vital infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the strike on social media, emphasizing that the attack aimed to disrupt Russia’s revenue streams from the port oil infrastructure in St Petersburg. Additionally, Ukrainian forces allegedly targeted the Kronstadt naval base located approximately 528 miles from Ukraine’s border.
Reports indicate that Ukraine has escalated its long-range drone assaults on Russia’s critical energy facilities, claiming to have rendered nearly 43% of Russia’s oil refining capacity inoperable. This action follows a deadly Russian strike on Kyiv, resulting in the loss of 30 lives, marking it as the deadliest assault on Ukraine this year.
St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov acknowledged a massive drone attack on the city, confirming the damage to the oil terminal. Fortunately, there were no reported casualties from the strike. In a similar incident, Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the nearby Leningrad region, mentioned a drone striking the Vysotsk port area without specifying the extent of the impact.
Moscow retaliated against the drone attacks, claiming to have downed nearly 500 Ukrainian drones and 10 Flamingo missiles from Kyiv overnight. In a separate development, Ukraine refuted Moscow’s assertion that Russian forces had seized the strategic city of Kostyantynivka in the eastern Donetsk region, a critical stronghold for Ukrainian troops and a prime target for the Kremlin.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson refuted Moscow’s claims, affirming that Kostyantynivka remained under Ukrainian control, denouncing the Russian announcement as false. Despite the ongoing challenges, the Ukrainian Defence Forces reportedly maintained control of Kostyantynivka along the designated defensive lines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in military attire, acknowledged the capture of Kostyantynivka by Russian troops, a town Moscow had been vying to control for months. The capture of Kostyantynivka is crucial in the Kremlin’s strategic objective to reach major Ukrainian-held cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the Donbas region.
Ukrainian forces continue to resist Russian incursions, with small groups of Russian troops reportedly infiltrating Kostyantynivka. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed that their troops had occupied various parts of the town, contradicting Ukrainian reports.
President Zelensky dismissed the Russian assertions as false propaganda, challenging Putin to meet in Kostyantynivka for diplomatic discussions to end the conflict. Despite repeated rejections of talks by Putin, Zelensky remains open to dialogue to resolve the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine.