Ukraine's military reportedly carried out an attack on St. Petersburg in the early hours of July 4, striking an oil terminal in the city, Russian Telegram media channels reported, Kyiv Independent reports.
Photos and videos posted to social media purport to show black plumes of smoke and fire rising from the port area of the city, home to the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal in Russia's Leningrad Oblast.
Explosions were heard in the city around 6:30 a.m. local time amid resident reports of Ukrainian long-range drones flying over the region, according to independent Russian media outlets. Russian officials said dozens of drones were shot down Leningrad Oblast overnight.
The oil terminal, located on the Gulf of Finland at the city's Great Port of St. Petersburg, is one of Russia's largest fuel storage and export facilities. It receives and ships petroleum products by river, rail, and motor transit, and boasts a reported throughput of 12.5 million tons per year.
The extent of the damage caused was not immediately clear.
The Kyiv Independent cannot immediately verify the reports. Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the strikes.
St. Petersburg — located 1,100 kilometers (about 684 miles) from Ukraine's border and the hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin — has rarely been targeted by Ukrainian attacks throughout Russia's full-scale invasion due to the concentration of Russian air defenses around the historically significant city.
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