Smoke billows into the sky following Ukrainian drone strikes on an industrial zone in St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 18, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
Ukrainian strikes set an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St. Petersburg on Sunday (October 18, 2026) as Kyiv launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia in one of its largest aerial attacks of the war.
The strikes came amid deepening tensions between Ukraine and Washington, with U.S. President Donald Trump criticising Kyiv’s attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and the prospect of further U.S. sanctions against Moscow still uncertain.
One person was killed, and five others were wounded in the St. Petersburg attack, which sparked fires at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the city’s Ruchi oil depot, local Gov. Alexander Beglov said. A logistics centre belonging to Russian retailer Ozon and a data centre operated by Russian tech giant VK were also targeted, the companies confirmed.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said Sunday (October 18, 2026) that its forces had destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and the Black Sea.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass that Kyiv was “resisting” Moscow’s invasion but could not “change the current course of events.”
Future of U.S. sanctions still unclear
The strikes came after Mr. Trump told reporters that they did not know what his decision on further sanctions against Russia would be, despite signing an executive order Friday night (October 16, 2026) waiving planned restrictions, citing U.S. national interests.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday (October 18, 2026), Mr. Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions against Russia would strengthen Mr. Putin’s war effort. He also said U.S.-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being “blocked for some period of time.”
Mr. Zelenskyy said that while he trusted Mr. Trump, siding with Moscow would be a tragedy and a “historic mistake” for Washington.
“People want to forget what’s going on. But we can’t give this possibility to forget, or to change reality, or to change the truth,” Mr. Zelenskyy said. “We can’t compare Putin and Putin. He’s an aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He’s a terrorist. And that’s why I hope that President Trump will be very clear with this position.”
A woman was killed, and a 6-year-old girl was among at least two other people wounded in two Russian attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said Sunday. Two apartment buildings, 18 cars and an educational institution were damaged in the attacks, Mykhailo Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, said.
Published – October 18, 2026 10:21 pm IST
