Two people have been killed and at least ۱۷ injured as Russia and Ukraine continue to trade strikes on each other’s power infrastructure, after the breakdown of Donald Trump’s short-lived and unilaterally declared “energy ceasefire”.
One person was killed and ۱۵ wounded overnight after Ukraine used more than ۱,۰۰۰ drones to target Russian oil depots, logistics facilities and datacentres in one of its largest ever aerial bombardments.
St Petersburg’s governor, Alexander Beglov, said on Sunday that fires had broken out overnight at the city’s oil terminal, an oil depot and industrial warehouses. A logistics centre belonging to the Russian retailer Ozon and a datacentre for the local tech company VK were also targeted, both companies confirmed.
Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region that surrounds St Petersburg, said ۱۴۵ drones had been shot down and about ۲۰,۰۰۰ people were without electricity after the raid. “A large-scale [unmanned aerial vehicle] attack continues to be repelled,” he wrote on Telegram.
Meanwhile, local officials in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia said Russian strikes had killed a woman and wounded at least two other people, including a six-year-old girl. Two apartment buildings, ۱۸ cars and an educational institution had been damaged by the attack, according to Mykhailo Semikin, the head of the Zaporizhzhia regional military administration.
Tensions are deepening between Kyiv and Washington, with the US president criticising Ukraine for its strikes on Russian oil infrastructure, despite continued Russian aggression.
Trump announced an “energy ceasefire” last week – which neither side said they agreed to beforehand – that quickly collapsed as Moscow continued its strikes on Ukraine’s power grid and Kyiv eventually resumed its hits on Russian oil refineries.
The Russian defence ministry said its air defence units had downed ۱,۰۱۵ Ukrainian drones around the country overnight. The Tass news agency quoted the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, who said Russia was responding with systematic, large-scale strikes.
“The Kyiv regime is resisting, but this cannot change the course of events,” he said, answering a question about how Russia might respond to Kyiv’s attack on St Petersburg.
On Saturday, Russia said it had carried out a major overnight attack, targeting Ukraine’s largest steelworks in the city of Kryvyi Rih and vessels using the port of Odesa. In a statement, Russia’s defence ministry said its forces had also hit an electricity substation in the north-western city of Zhytomyr and another steel plant in Zaporizhzhia.
In the Trump administration’s latest effort to reduce tensions with Russia, the US president announced on Friday that he would put a hold on a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause on the legislation passed by both chambers was in the national interest.
Trump has yet to give details about what he has decided regarding further sanctions on Russia.
“We’ll figure it out, and you’ll figure it out,” he told reporters at a fundraising dinner at his Florida estate on Saturday. “But it’s a very good decision, and it’s going to be a decision that’s good for the country, and I think good for the world.”
In a post on X on Sunday, Zelenskyy said in the week since Trump’s announcement of an energy ceasefire Russia had attacked Ukraine’s energy, oil and gas sectors ۷۶ times.
He also said that the previous night alone, energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions had been attacked and tens of thousands of families were still without power. He accused Russia of trying to cause a blackout.
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“America should see that Russia is not taking any reciprocal steps in response to sanctions relief or agreements,” he said. “On the contrary, they take every signal of an opportunity to make money as proof that their bet on war is paying off and they can keep fighting.”
Zelenskyy also stressed that the war was continuing due to Russia’s invasion – not because Ukraine was defending itself. “It is Russia that must face pressure for peace to have a chance. Thank you to everyone who understands this and helps,” he said.
Fears that the conflict could be spilling over into Nato’s borders were stoked again on Sunday morning after Lithuania told residents in central and northern parts of the country to seek shelter for about an hour after an unidentified flying object entered its airspace.
During the red alert, Nato fighter jets were scrambled to the area, and Kaunas airport, near Lithuania’s second largest city, was temporarily closed, the national crisis management centre said.
The Nato aircraft were unable to visually identify the object due to cloudy weather and did not attempt to shoot it down, the centre said.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry later said it regretted the possible diversion of its drones into Lithuanian airspace on Sunday, which it said may have been caused by Russian electronic warfare.
“We apologise for any disruption, risks and concern this may have caused,” a spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, wrote on X. “We are committed to sharing all relevant information with our Lithuanian partners to establish the full circumstances of the incident.“
Ukrainian drones have repeatedly entered Nato airspace in the Baltic region in recent months. Kyiv has said they were steered off course by Russian signal jamming. Such incidents have stoked concerns that Russia’s war in Ukraine could spread.
Reuters, the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report
