St Petersburg attack won't change war aims, Kremlin says

The Kremlin said a major drone attack on Saint Petersburg would not change Russia's war aims, after Russian officials said Ukrainian strikes killed one person, hospitalised five and set oil sites and warehouses ablaze in Vladimir Putin's hometown.

“The Kyiv regime is putting up a fight, but that cannot change the course of events,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media on Sunday.

Saint Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said one person was killed and five people were hospitalised in the city. He said authorities were fighting fires at the Saint Petersburg oil terminal, the Ruchyi oil depot and industrial warehouses, and that 12 housing blocks were damaged. Flights were restricted at Pulkovo airport.

Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the surrounding Leningrad region, said air defence shot down 144 Ukrainian drones. Russian state media described the attack as the largest on the city since the start of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Drozdenko said about 20,000 people were without power in Yanino after a substation was hit. He also said a woman and three children were hospitalised with symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning after drone debris fell on a house and caused a fire.

Russia's VKontakte social network said one of its data centres was hit in the city, while Ozon, Russia's second-largest retailer, reported a hit on its logistics centre.

In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian strikes hit substations in four regions, leaving “tens of thousands of families” without power. He accused Moscow of violating an “energy ceasefire” announced by US President Donald Trump 76 times and warned that Russia planned a blackout in Ukraine before winter.

Ukrainian authorities said Russian attacks killed at least three people on Sunday, including a 27-year-old woman in Zaporizhzhia and two people in the western Volyn region bordering Poland.