St Petersburg oil terminal burns after drone attack; governor reports one killed

Fire crews were tackling blazes at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi oil depot on Sunday 18 October after an overnight drone attack, according to St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov. He reported one person killed and five injured and hospitalised.

Homes damaged as well as fuel sites

In his morning update, Beglov said 12 apartment buildings and two private houses had been damaged. Repairs were under way and residents evacuated overnight were returning home, he said. He also reported continuing firefighting at industrial warehouses in the Kolpinsky district. These are the governor’s figures, rather than an independently established damage assessment.

The unanswered question: how much disruption?

The two named fuel sites make the attack consequential for oil logistics. But a reported fire does not establish how much storage or handling capacity has been lost, whether shipments have stopped, or how long repairs might take. The sources reviewed for this report do not settle those questions.

A new attack, a separate event

This is the 18 October incident in St Petersburg, distinct from the 15 October refinery-fire report in Ryazan covered by Accordmere. The casualty figure replaces Beglov’s earlier overnight statement that there had been no victims. His later update attributes the attack to Ukrainian drones; responsibility and the full scale of damage remain attributed claims.