Drone raid on St Petersburg
Ukraine launched one of its largest drone attacks on Russia this year overnight from Saturday, 17 October into Sunday, 18 October. St Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov said fires broke out at the oil terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses. Drones also hit a datacentre for the tech group VK and a logistics centre belonging to the online retailer Ozon, and both companies confirmed the strikes. Beglov reported one person killed and five injured in the city, while The Guardian gave a wider overnight toll of one killed and 15 wounded. Across the surrounding Leningrad region, governor Alexander Drozdenko said 145 drones had been shot down and about 20,000 people were without electricity. The Russian defence ministry put the number of Ukrainian drones downed across the country overnight at 1,015. Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 195 drones heading for the capital had been destroyed since midnight, and the Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports suspended flights.
Energy truce breaks down
Trump announced an 'energy ceasefire' earlier in October, but neither side had confirmed agreeing to it beforehand. The truce quickly collapsed as Moscow kept striking Ukraine's power grid and Kyiv resumed attacks on Russian oil refineries. Kyiv says Russia has violated the truce dozens of times and left tens of thousands of people without power. Ukraine describes its strikes as retaliation for Russian bombardment of its energy system since the full-scale invasion in 2022, aimed at cutting the oil and gas revenue that finances the Kremlin's war. Trump has criticised Volodymyr Zelensky for targeting Russian refineries, arguing that the attacks push up global fuel prices.
Washington freezes Russia sanctions law
Just before the overnight strikes, Trump used a presidential decree to block the application of a law that would impose heavy penalties on importers of Russian hydrocarbons. The law carries the name of Lindsey Graham, a former Republican senator who died in July. Trump had signed the sanctions package almost a month earlier, and his decree now suspends it in the name of the national interest of the United States. Criticism came from both parties in Congress. Republican senator Thom Tillis called the decision more than irresponsible on X and accused the administration of capitulating to a Russian dictator. Republican representative Don Bacon said Trump was prolonging Russia's war rather than ending it, and senator John Cornyn posted that Graham would have been appalled.
Russian strikes across Ukraine
Local authorities reported ten civilian deaths across Ukraine within 24 hours. In Donetsk oblast seven people were killed and fourteen injured, with several houses damaged. Sumy oblast recorded two civilian deaths, and one person died in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia.
Mykhailo Semikin, head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration, said Russian strikes killed a woman and wounded at least two others, including a six-year-old girl. Two apartment buildings, 18 cars and an educational institution were damaged. Ukraine's army said it neutralised 152 Russian drones, including sixteen hard-to-intercept jet-powered drones, although ten of those got past air defences. Russia said it had hit logistics centres storing drone components and that a ship in the port of Odesa was struck, claiming it carried military cargo. On Saturday Russia had also said it targeted Ukraine's largest steelworks in Kryvyi Rih. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was answering with systematic, large-scale strikes.
The Kyiv regime is resisting, but this cannot change the course of events.
Drones stray into NATO airspace
Some Ukrainian drones entered Polish and Lithuanian airspace during the raid. Lithuania sounded an air alarm, and the Polish armed forces responded after reports of unidentified objects in their airspace. Ukraine's foreign ministry apologised for the incursions, and a spokesperson said on social media that Russian electronic jamming had probably pushed the drones off course.