By Sumayya
Ukrainian attacks set an oil shipping station and a storage yard on fire in St. Petersburg on Sunday as Kyiv sent more than 1,000 drones into Russia in one of its biggest flying attacks of the war.
The attacks happened as arguments between Ukraine and Washington grew deeper, with U.S. President Donald Trump criticizing Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil buildings and the future of more U.S. punishments against Moscow staying unsure. One person died and five others were hurt in the St. Petersburg attack, which started fires at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the city’s Ruchi oil yard, local Governor Alexander Beglov said. A shipping center owned by Russian store Ozon and a computer data center run by Russian tech company VK were also aimed at, the businesses confirmed. Russia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday that its soldiers had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian areas, the stolen Ukrainian land of Crimea, and the Black Sea. Kremlin speaker Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass that Kyiv was fighting back against Moscow’s invasion but could not alter the current path of events.
The strikes happened after Trump told news writers that they did not know what his choice on more punishments against Russia would be, even though he signed an official order Friday night stopping planned limits, pointing to U.S. national interests. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Zelenskyy said stopping punishments against Russia would make Putin’s war work stronger. He also said U.S.-Ukraine secret information sharing had started again after being stopped for a while. Zelenskyy said that while he trusted Trump, taking Moscow’s side would be a tragedy and a historical error for Washington. “People want to forget what is going on. But we cannot give this chance to forget, or to alter reality, or to alter the truth,” Zelenskyy said. He added that people cannot compare him and Putin because Putin is the attacker who took their land, killed grown-ups and children with his soldiers, and is a terrorist, which is why he hopes President Trump will be very clear with his position. Meanwhile, a woman died and a six-year-old girl was among at least two other people hurt in two Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, local leaders said Sunday.
Trump announced on October 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a power ceasefire in the four-and-a-half-year-old war, but gave no details. Kyiv reported Russian attacks on power sites kept happening after Trump’s announcement, and on Thursday said it had restarted attacks on Russian oil buildings after a three-day break. Zelenskyy wrote on X Sunday that Russia had attacked Ukraine’s power, oil, and gas areas 76 times in the week since Trump’s talk. The Ukrainian government first said it was following the ceasefire. Power buildings in four Ukrainian areas were hit overnight, leaving tens of thousands of families without electricity, he said, accusing Russia of trying to cause a total blackout. He wrote that America should see that Russia is not taking any matching steps in return for lifted punishments or agreements. Instead, they take every sign of a chance to make money as proof that their bet on war is working and they can keep fighting. Zelenskyy also highlighted that the war was keeping on because of Russia’s invasion, not Ukraine’s work to protect itself, stating that Russia must face pressure for peace to have a shot.
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry speaker Heorhii Tykhyi said sorry in a message Sunday after a drone flew into Lithuania’s sky, causing leaders to give a air attack warning. Tykhyi said that the event might have happened from Russian electronic tricks turning drones away during an operation against real military targets in Russia. Lithuanian leaders told people in two northern areas along the Latvian border to hide because of a possible drone entry early Sunday, public reporter LRT said. A drone flew into Lithuania’s northern Pasvalys area, hurting a moving car, the reporter said, citing Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Centre. Nobody was hurt.
