A wave of Ukrainian long-range drones has struck the St Petersburg region overnight, hitting an oil terminal and a Baltic Sea port in one of the largest deep-strike operations against President Vladimir Putin’s home city.

Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defences shot down 72 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the region on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces had struck oil infrastructure funding Russia’s war effort and also hit the Kronstadt naval base in St Petersburg, calling it “an important military target”.

The operation, conducted approximately 900km (560 miles) from Ukrainian-held territory, triggered widespread local disruptions.

“Zelensky’s attempt to cause damage to civilian targets in the Russian Federation will not go unanswered by the armed forces of Russia,” Moscow’s defence ministry said in a statement on Saturday, adding that Russian defences had downed more than 500 aerial targets, mostly drones but also 10 Flamingo missiles.

Russian authorities briefly halted flight operations at Pulkovo Airport and throttled municipal mobile internet networks to jam the drones’ cellular-backed navigation systems.

St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said one drone crashed in the grounds of the 18th-century Peterhof Palace complex, and another hit an oil terminal in the city’s Kirovsky district.

Regional officials said debris struck an oil terminal, a nearby port and a historic palace complex. Drozdenko added that drone debris fell near the port of Vysotsk, close to the Finnish border, without giving a casualty toll.

Moscow also reported one killed in Bryansk and another in annexed Crimea, while Belgorod officials said attacks on infrastructure cut power and water.

Russia’s oil refining capacity partially ‘disabled’

On Saturday, Ukraine’s General Staff claimed its attacks had disabled 42.74 percent of Russia’s oil refining capacity as of early July, reporting eight refineries hit over the past month and more than 60 storage tanks destroyed or damaged.

It put cumulative industry losses at $13.5bn since August 2025.

Independent energy analysts estimate the functional disruption to be closer to one-third of Russia’s capacity.

The campaign has triggered domestic fuel shortages, prompting Moscow to extend petrol export bans and implement fuel sale restrictions across more than 40 regions and annexed Crimea.

Putin acknowledged last Sunday that the attacks were causing a fuel shortage, though he described it as “not critical” and said damaged facilities were being repaired quickly.

Meanwhile, Russia on Saturday struck a gas production facility with a drone in the central Poltava region, causing a fire, Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz said.

“A fire broke out at the site after the attack. Operations at the facility have been suspended,” Naftogaz said on Telegram. “The enemy is systematically targeting gas production facilities in an attempt to reduce Ukraine’s domestic output and complicate preparations for the heating season,” it added.

Moscow also announced that its forces had captured the strategic eastern town of Kostiantynivka, but Ukraine’s Zelenskyy dismissed the claim as false, and Kyiv’s military insisted that clashes were still under way in the area.

This comes after heavy Russian attacks on Kyiv killed 30 people on Thursday, part of an intensifying exchange. At least four people were also killed and 27 injured when Russian forces struck the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy with glide bombs on Friday, regional officials said, adding that people remained trapped in the rubble of a residential building.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz held a telephone conversation with Zelenskyy on Saturday, during which they discussed Russia’s latest attacks, according to a statement from the German government.

The call comes just days before world leaders gather in Ankara, Turkiye, for a NATO summit next week, where alliance members are expected to pledge 70 billion euros ($80bn) in military assistance to Ukraine for the year 2026.

Competing claims

Russia’s ⁠defence ministry said on Saturday that its ⁠forces had taken ⁠four villages in Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv region, and one ‌in the neighbouring Donetsk region.

In its daily briefing, the ministry said Russian forces ⁠had taken control of ⁠Shyikivka, Novyi Myr, Cherneshchyna and Druzhelyubivka ⁠in Kharkiv region, ⁠as well ⁠as Vasylivka in Donetsk.

The previous day, the ministry said Russian forces had taken control of the strategically ⁠important eastern ⁠city of Kostiantynivka, a target that Moscow has long ⁠sought in its advance through the Donetsk region.

Zelenskyy denied the city had been taken.

“Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie, an attempt to generate some kind of a news story,” he said on X.

“If Kostiantynivka were under ‌Russian control, then perhaps Putin would have no problem meeting me there to find a diplomatic way to finally end this war.”

The General Staff also said Kostiantynivka remained under the control of Ukrainian forces.

“Military units and subunits of the 19th Army Corps of the Eastern Grouping continue to conduct ⁠defensive operations on designated lines within the town ⁠and on its approaches,” it said in a statement.

Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key settlements that form a defensive line central to Ukraine’s effort to hold the heavily ⁠industrialised Donetsk region.