St Petersburg Drone Attack Hits Oil Terminal and VK Data Center

St Petersburg and the surrounding Leningrad region came under a large-scale drone attack overnight into Sunday, October 18, with an oil terminal and a VK data center among the sites affected. The incident also disrupted electricity supplies, mobile connectivity and transport operations, creating immediate operational risks for energy, technology and infrastructure assets in Russia’s second-largest city.

A fire broke out at the St Petersburg Oil Terminal, while emergency crews responded to fires at what authorities described as civilian infrastructure facilities in the city’s Nevsky, Krasnoselsky, Krasnogvardeysky and Moskovsky districts. City Governor Alexander Beglov said operations at Pulkovo Airport had been restricted for safety reasons.

“There are no casualties. Mobile internet disruptions are possible,” Beglov wrote on Telegram.

For markets, the principal focus is the status of the oil terminal, the duration of restrictions affecting logistics, and any wider disruption to power and communications networks. The available official statements did not provide information about the scale of damage, possible interruptions to petroleum handling or the timing of a return to normal operations. No trading-volume, price-move or production figures were reported in the source material.

Energy and transport infrastructure draw attention

The St Petersburg Oil Terminal fire puts fuel storage and distribution infrastructure at the center of the event. Emergency services were working to extinguish the blaze early Sunday, according to Beglov. Authorities did not report casualties or disclose whether storage capacity, loading operations or supply routes had been impaired.

Reports also indicated that a drone strike hit the cable-stayed bridge across the Korabelny fairway, part of the Western High-Speed Diameter, or WHSD, a toll motorway serving St Petersburg. The claim was published by the Telegram channels Dnipro Osint, Astra and Varlamov News but had not been confirmed by authorities.

However, the St Petersburg news outlet Fontanka reported that the WHSD had been closed between the Ekateringofka River and the Shkipersky Channel. The bridge across the Korabelny fairway is located on that section. Any prolonged closure could affect road traffic and commercial transport, although no data on freight volumes or economic losses were provided.

Pulkovo Airport’s restricted operations added another transport constraint. Beglov did not specify the extent or expected duration of the restrictions, leaving airlines, travelers and cargo operators facing uncertainty over near-term schedules.

VK services remain online despite data-center strike

VK representatives confirmed that a company data center in the Leningrad region had been attacked by a drone. VK owns, among other businesses, the VKontakte social network and the Max messenger service.

The company said its services remained available to users under normal operating conditions. Nevertheless, the monitoring websites Sboy.rf and Detector404.ru registered a surge in user complaints concerning VKontakte. The reports point to possible localized or intermittent service issues despite the company’s statement that its platforms were operating normally.

The incident places additional scrutiny on data-center resilience and continuity planning for Russian digital platforms. The source did not specify which facility was struck, the extent of any physical damage or whether traffic had been rerouted to backup infrastructure.

Power interruptions reported across the region

Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said 126 drones had been shot down over the region. According to his account, falling debris struck an apartment building in Vsevolozhsk, a private house near Kirovsk and four vehicles in the village of Nizino.

“Short power outages linked to debris falling on electricity transmission lines are being recorded,” Drozdenko said.

Residents also reported electricity problems in several parts of St Petersburg. Fontanka readers described outages in the Kalininsky and Krasnogvardeysky districts and in the Ruchyi area. The reports suggested a partial blackout rather than a citywide loss of power, though authorities did not provide figures for affected customers or restoration timelines.

The combination of an oil-terminal fire, airport restrictions, road closures, data-center disruption and intermittent electricity supply represents a broad infrastructure event. Investors and commodity-market participants would be watching for official updates on terminal operations, logistics bottlenecks and repair timelines. Technology-sector attention is likely to remain on VK service availability and whether the data-center incident produces further outages.

Authorities said there were no fatalities. Emergency work remained underway at the affected sites, while the reported strike on the WHSD bridge was still awaiting official confirmation.