Drone Raid on St. Petersburg Damages a Power Substation, a VK Data Center and an Ozon Warehouse

Russian air defenses shot down 145 drones over St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region in one night, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said, Ostorozhno Novosti reported in Russian. The Vostochnaya substation was damaged, so the town of Yanino switched to backup power and a boiler house was started. Local news site Fontanka reported that the 330-kilovolt substation's damage was mainly to wiring. Fontanka said one person died and 10 were injured, seven of whom were hospitalized, including five children.

The drones struck companies that are part of Russia's ordinary civilian economy. Kommersant reported damage to a data center belonging to VK, the country's largest social-media group, a logistics center of the online retailer Ozon, and an oil terminal. Independent outlet Agentstvo described the attack as Ukraine's largest air strike on St. Petersburg since the war began, and reported about 1,000 cancelled flights at Moscow's airports during the same wave of attacks. Ukrainian officials did not comment on the specific targets in the coverage reviewed.

The attacks continued at a lower level. State news agency RIA Novosti reported on Tuesday that air defenses downed two drones over the Kaluga region in the previous 24 hours. Russian outlets of every editorial line, state, business and independent, reported the St. Petersburg damage. Few Russian events get that kind of agreement across outlets, which makes the damage reports more reliable than most wartime claims.