The oil terminal of St. Petersburg has been hit as Ukraine clamps down on a long-range drone campaign

A Ukrainian airstrike hit an oil terminal in St. Petersburg on Saturday, Russian officials said, as Kyiv continued its bombing of Russian oil infrastructure.

Almost daily attacks on Russian oil facilities have created a fuel crisis and put political pressure on the Kremlin as the Ukraine-wide offensive reaches its fifth year.

The government of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov said that the district of the city of Kirovsky on the Baltic Sea was hit. He also said that the air defense has shot down 72 Ukrainian drones in the second largest city in Russia and the surrounding regions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the attack as part of Ukraine’s “long-term sanctions” against Russia. He said that the Ukrainian forces also attacked the army on the island of Kronstadt, off the coast of St.

“Ukraine’s defense forces hit the oil infrastructure of the port, which brings in money for the Russian war, and there was a blow to Kronstadt – a military priority,” he said in a post of the Telegram messaging service.

Kirovsky district of St. Petersburg was attacked in June, before the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Petersburg.

The Crimean peninsula, which was seized by Russia in 2014 from Ukraine, has been hit hard by heavy strikes, prompting local authorities to halt the sale of fuel to civilians.

The attack in Ukraine on Saturday killed one person and wounded two others, including a 10-year-old child, Moscow Governor Sergei Aksyonov said.

The invasion of Ukraine brings the war home

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed Ukraine’s strikes on Russian power plants as “not serious” and insisted that the war will continue until his goals are achieved.

He described the attack on Russian forces as an attempt by Ukraine to distract attention from its losses on the battlefield, although analysts say Russian military progress has been hampered in recent months.

On Friday, Putin visited the Russian military headquarters directing the war in Ukraine and received a report on the capture of the town of Kostyantynivka after weeks of intense street fighting.

He hailed it as an important step in capturing the nearby towns of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the remaining key strongholds in the “forest beach” of heavily fortified Donetsk region cities that remain in Ukrainian hands.

The capture of Kostyantynivka, a major transport and industrial center, is “very important,” Putin, dressed in military fatigues, said on television.

Zelenskyy denied that Russia took over the city. “It’s another Russian lie, an attempt to produce some kind of news story,” he wrote on social media on Saturday.

“If Kostyantynivka was under Russian control, maybe Putin would not have a problem meeting me there to find a way to communicate to end this war. But the truth is, he will not cross the front line – the truth is very different from Putin’s words.”

Zelenskyy’s post appeared to appeal to US President Donald Trump. “Now, on the eve of America’s Independence Day, Putin has chosen to lie to the world and to the President of the United States about the situation ahead.”

Putin appears to believe his government can prevent the fuel crisis from undermining his authority and support for the war he launched in Feb. 24, 2022. At the very least, the attack has brought the war even more heartbreaking to millions of Russians, shattering Putin’s narrative of the conflict as one that does not affect the lives of ordinary people in his country.

The border city of Belgorod, which has also been hit by Ukrainian airstrikes, was left without power on Saturday due to nighttime attacks, local media reported.

Meanwhile, eight people were injured after a Russian airstrike hit residential buildings in Ukraine’s southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, including two children, local authorities said on Saturday.