Ukraine Launches Its Biggest Drone Barrage as Trump-Zelenskyy Rift Deepens
Ukraine launched one of the largest aerial strikes of the war overnight, sending more than 1,000 drones at targets across Russia even as the public clash between Kyiv and Washington deepened. Russia’s defense ministry claimed it neutralized 1,015 drones across 15 regions, Crimea and the Black Sea, in what would be the largest one-night drone count Moscow has ever published, according to The Trent citing AP and CNN reporting.
A strike aimed at Russia’s energy lifeline
The heaviest damage was in St. Petersburg, where fires broke out at the Petersburg Oil Terminal and the Ruchi oil depot, along with warehouses in the Kolpinsky district. Governor Alexander Beglov said one person was killed and five were wounded, and that residential buildings were damaged. Pulkovo airport restricted operations, about 20,000 people lost power in the Leningrad region, an Ozon logistics hub caught fire, and a VK data center was hit, though user services stayed normal.
The barrage resumed Kyiv’s long-range campaign against Russian energy infrastructure after a brief pause that followed President Trump’s October 11 call for an energy ceasefire, a proposal neither side accepted. The attacks come as Moscow’s own strikes continue: Zelenskyy said on Monday that Russia had fired 16 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and the surrounding region, with officials reporting a 21-year-old woman killed.
Ukraine has also pointed to new handicaps in its warfighting. Zelenskyy told NBC’s Meet the Press that U.S. intelligence sharing had been interrupted for about three days before being restored, and has called the American speed restrictions on Starlink terminals a mistake. Both moves have reportedly degraded drone guidance and missile early warning, according to separate reporting.
The diplomatic rupture
The battlefield escalation is unfolding against an extraordinary public rift. Trump posted on Truth Social savaging Zelenskyy, writing that the Ukrainian leader “doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” while saying he is negotiating peace. Zelenskyy fired back on Meet the Press that American siding with Russia would be a “historic mistake,” and wrote on social media Monday that Ukraine had “responded positively to EVERY ceasefire proposal” while the war continued “solely because of Russian strikes.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Uzbekistan, denied any pause in intelligence sharing and defended pausing new sanctions as prudent. With oil markets already on edge and winter approaching, the question now is whether the biggest strike of the war narrows the rift with Washington or widens it beyond repair.
