The monitoring channel Exilenova+ reported that drones attacked an oil terminal in the St. Petersburg area, where a tanker subsequently caught fire. Russia’s ASTRA news agency also reported on the overnight attacks, RBC Ukraine reported.
Drones attack Moscow and St. Petersburg, hitting key oil terminal https://t.co/PZFE7Iofa3
— RBC-Ukraine (@NewsUkraineRBC) October 18, 2026
Leningrad Region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said Russian air defenses had shot down 57 drones. He added that debris from a drone strike in the village of Nizino, in the Lomonosov district, damaged four cars in a parking lot and sparked a fire.
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Residents also reported explosions in Kudrovo. Meanwhile, some residents of St. Petersburg reportedly received no text-message alerts about the drone threat or received them with significant delays.
In Moscow, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin began reporting intercepted drones at around 11 p.m. on October 17. By 3 a.m. on October 18, he had reported that 87 drones had been downed.
Sobyanin did not report any casualties or damage in the capital but said emergency services were working at locations where drone debris had fallen. Explosions were also reported in the Moscow region.
The attacks prompted Russian aviation authorities to restrict arrivals and departures at two Moscow airports and Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg.
Ukraine’s Defense Forces struck the St. Petersburg oil terminal using FP-1 drones, according to their manufacturer, Fire Point. The facility is one of the region’s largest oil-loading complexes, handling the receipt, storage and shipment of petroleum products, including exports.
The terminal has an annual capacity of 12.5 million metric tons. A fire broke out at the facility following the reported strike. The extent of the damage was not immediately clear.
The latest reported attacks come amid a series of large-scale drone incidents targeting Moscow in recent days.
On the night of October 14, Ukrainian forces launched hundreds of drones toward the Russian capital in what was described as one of the largest attacks on Moscow.
On October 16, an attack involving approximately 50 drones led to flight restrictions at four airports serving the Moscow metropolitan area: Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky.
Three of those airports suspended operations again the following night, although Sobyanin did not report a drone threat at the time.
