Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia on Sunday in one of the largest aerial attacks of the war, setting an oil export terminal and a depot ablaze in St. Petersburg. Local Gov. Alexander Beglov said one person was killed and five others wounded in the strikes, which also hit a logistics center belonging to Russian retailer Ozon and a data center operated by tech giant VK. Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces destroyed 1,015 Ukrainian drones over 15 Russian regions, the annexed Crimean peninsula and the Black Sea.
The strikes came as tensions between Kyiv and Washington deepened. President Donald Trump criticized Ukraine's attacks on Russian oil infrastructure and said he decided to hold off on implementing new sanctions on Russia because he does not "want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table." Trump defended his Friday order waiving planned sanctions, saying he believed new restrictions would undermine negotiations to end the war. "I can sign it later, or any time that I want!" Trump added.
On NBC's "Meet the Press," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said waiving sanctions would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin's war effort. He said U.S.-Ukraine intelligence sharing had resumed after being "blocked for some period of time." While saying he trusted Trump, Zelenskyy warned that siding with Moscow would be a tragedy and a "historic mistake" for Washington. "We can't compare me and Putin. He's (an) aggressor. He occupied us. He killed adults and children, his soldiers. He's a terrorist," Zelenskyy said.
Zelenskyy said Sunday he had spoken with U.S. presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about an Oct. 9 meeting in Miami and "next steps in diplomacy." Trump announced on Oct. 11 that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to an "energy ceasefire" but offered no details. Kyiv reported Russian attacks on energy sites continued afterward, and Ukraine resumed strikes on Russian oil facilities Thursday after a three-day pause. Zelenskyy wrote that Russia had attacked Ukraine's energy, oil and gas sectors 76 times in the week since Trump's announcement.
Meanwhile in Ukraine, a woman was killed and a 6-year-old girl was among at least two other people wounded in two Russian attacks on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, local officials said. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency Tass that Kyiv was "resisting" Moscow's invasion but could not "change the current course of events."
Sources: 8 News Now, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Original reporting: 8 News Now →
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