Ukrainian forces carried out a large-scale overnight drone operation targeting the St. Petersburg oil terminal and Baltic port infrastructure, according to The Guardian.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov confirmed a major drone strike at the city's oil facility but reported no casualties.
>>> De Minaur Beats Svajda to Reach Wimbledon Round of 16
In the neighboring Leningrad region, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said Russian forces shot down 72 drones, causing minor damage in several settlements.
The strikes also targeted the Baltic Sea port of Vysotsk, which handles oil, liquefied natural gas, grain, and coal.
No details on the impact were provided.
Additional drone activity was reported in the Pskov region, where over 30 drones were downed, and in the Bryansk region and Crimea, where strikes resulted in two deaths.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the operations on social media, linking the infrastructure strikes to economic pressure on Moscow.
He stated that Ukraine's defense forces struck port oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war and also hit Kronstadt, an important military target over 850 km from Ukraine's border.
>>> Maria Sharapova Planned Tennis Retirement Years in Advance
While Ukrainian authorities confirmed targeting the Kronstadt naval base, Russian officials did not acknowledge a strike there.
The Kremlin minimized the strategic impact of the raids, with President Vladimir Putin describing them as "not critical."
Beyond the drone strikes, tensions escalated over the territorial status of the eastern city of Kostiantynivka.
The Russian military claimed on Friday that its forces had secured the area, but Zelenskyy dismissed this as a lie and an attempt to generate a news story.
Zelenskyy challenged Moscow's narrative, suggesting that if Kostiantynivka were under Russian control, Putin would have no problem meeting him there to find a diplomatic end to the war.
Ukraine's General Staff issued a statement asserting that its military units maintain control over the town and continue defensive operations.
>>> Morocco Beats Canada 2-0 to Reach World Cup Quarterfinals
Concurrently, Russia's defense ministry claimed the capture of five additional eastern Ukrainian villages: Shyikivka, Novyi Myr, Cherneshchyna, and Druzhelyubivka in the Kharkiv region, along with Vasylivka in the Donetsk region.
