(NEW YORK) – Russia has declared itself in alliance with the United States against Europe, according to Kremlin state television propaganda, as Ukraine continues to strike critical Russian infrastructure and the Trump administration restricts military support for Kyiv.
Ukraine launched more than a thousand drones at St Petersburg over the weekend, striking an oil terminal, a bridge, an oil depot, a VK data centre and an ozone warehouse.
Satellite imagery showed one tank at the oil terminal completely burned down and several others damaged. A single tank at a north-east oil depot was also destroyed.
The VK data centre sustained more damage than previously assumed, with at least five or six drones striking the facility and creating multiple holes in the roof, including a large hole at the front.
A bridge was struck but damage was minimal, as long-range drones are limited in their ability to bring down such structures.
At the ozone warehouse, a third of the building burned down, though two-thirds remained intact. The warehouse was supposed to employ about 2,500 workers. In total, five ozone warehouses have burned down, while a tracker for Wildberries shows about 20 destroyed.
A resident of St Petersburg said there had been no official communication about the mass drone attack.
“For the second day in a row, I’ve been waiting for official comments from the authorities because the horror we experienced from Saturday into Sunday was unimaginable,” she said.
“Our walls were shaking, drones were flying over our heads, and explosions were happening non-stop. This can no longer be called the SMO or special military operation.”
“The SMO is supposed to be a localised conflict confined to a specific territory. What we’re seeing here is something else entirely. And what surprises me is that the authorities have remained silent.”
“Will someone actually explain to us what this is? What happened? And is this really our new normal?”
Neither the mayor of St Petersburg nor the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has commented on the attack on Russia’s second most important city.
Ukraine’s strikes on data centres are disrupting everyday life in Russia, from banking to taxis. Connectivity to the Yandex cloud platform fell to around 30% of normal levels following strikes between 8th and 11th October.
At the VK data centre in St Petersburg, users have experienced outages, slower app performance and data loss. High-resolution imagery of the Yandex data centre showed drones punched through the building in at least two locations.
Inside data centres are delicate processors, racks and communications systems, and electronics generally do not tolerate exposure to the elements.
At a data centre in Kuga, drones punched through the roof in at least three locations, and operators have already patched the roof to salvage equipment inside.
A data centre in occupied Donetsk was destroyed yesterday. The facility in Donetsk city served Ugle Telecom, providing internet and communications. Russian soldiers in the occupied territories are believed to route communications through Donetsk, making the strike significant for Ukraine. Footage of the damage was released by TAS.
Ukraine initially targeted data centres in Russia because Russia was attacking Ukraine’s data centres. However, Ukraine relies more heavily on computing and cloud storage in other countries, whereas Yandex and Russian communications companies operate as monopolies.
Destroying data centres cripples Russia’s entire system because the Kremlin wants to control data and cannot easily migrate operations abroad.
A fire broke out at an oil pumping station in Russia’s Tambov Oblast following a drone attack. The station is located at Nikolskaya.
Russia appears to be using pipelines more to transport oil from refineries in the far east to major cities in the far west, as most refineries in Russia’s European portion are offline because Ukrainian drones can more easily reach them.
Ukraine attacked an oil pumping station in Samara four times in a single week to knock it offline, and is now targeting other critical junctions to halt the flow of fuel and oil through Russia’s pipeline network.
OPEC data shows Russian oil production continuing to fall, from an all-time high of 11.3 million barrels per day just before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to only 8.6 million barrels per day, with projections of further decline.
Factors include sanctions, lack of access to Western expertise, technicians and parts, and Ukrainian drone attacks, but the primary constraint is the inability to move oil.
Without storage tanks, pipes and export terminals, oil accumulates with nowhere to store, move or sell it, forcing reduced output. The decline is expected to financially hurt Russia faster.
Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Agency released a compilation showing the destruction of a Tornado multiple launch rocket system, a Buk-M3 air defence system, an Orion unmanned aerial vehicle, a Nebu radar, a Kosta 2E radar, two P18 radars and other facilities in the occupied territories.
In a historic first, Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade used a heavy hexacopter to evacuate a wounded soldier from the kill zone. The position had been held for two months and two weeks by ground robots.
A statement said: “A historic event has taken place in evacuation from the front line using a flying drone. An extremely difficult operation, but a successful one.”
“I think it will go down in history at the very least in the history of our unit. This is a very important event for all of us, the evacuation of one of our wounded soldiers.”
The defender hooked himself in and remained at his position the entire time, continuing to carry out his duties. The hexacopter was strong enough to lift him, and constant contact was maintained, with medication and provisions supplied.
“He’s a hero. He agreed to do it without hesitation,” the statement said.
The soldier’s feet were badly wounded and may have required amputation, but he is expected to survive. The operation was described as well planned and involving many people, with a new phase of systematic work beginning to make such evacuations regular.
A survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that 61% of Ukrainians oppose a land for peace deal, rejecting the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donbas and handing the region over to full Russian occupation in exchange for security guarantees from the United States and Europe.
Some 35% would agree to such an arrangement with varying degrees of certainty.
The poll comes as Trump claims Zelensky should resign and Ukraine needs a new president who can negotiate, a position echoed by Putin.
Even if Ukraine held elections and either Zelensky were re-elected or General Zaluzhny became president, Ukrainians do not support surrendering land for a ceasefire or peace deal because they do not believe it would be genuine.
Russia launched 16 ballistic missiles in a deliberate attack on Kyiv and the Kyiv region with no early warning from partners, according to Ukrainian officials.
US military satellites track the aircraft that launch missiles against Kyiv, but no early warning was provided. Trump and the United States claim intelligence is still being shared but is “cloudy”.
The attack came in several waves overnight and targeted energy facilities and infrastructure, but also damaged a medical clinic, a school, a metro station and ordinary residential buildings.
Starlink or Star Shield is still being throttled for Ukraine’s defence. If a drone flies at speeds greater than 130 kilometres per hour, it loses connection and may fall out of the sky.
Zelensky said the service has not been restored to levels seen a week or two ago.
Russian forces in the occupied territories have confirmed the impact, with a statement noting that on the R20 R280 Novaria highway the situation was calmer for a second day, with only one transport vehicle hit by a Ukrainian UAV.
The statement was interpreted as Russian forces thanking the United States for throttling Starlink speeds, which has curtailed Ukraine’s mid-range strikes and contributed to a logistics lockdown in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Trump said Russia “frankly has been fine on Ukraine” and that “they haven’t been doing much”.
Russia hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure 76 times during the US-declared energy ceasefire, leaving tens of thousands without power.
Russia has attempted to cut Kyiv’s water supply as part of a winter strategy to make major cities uninhabitable by targeting heating, water and power.
Russian drones struck a hospital in Kyiv, injuring five people. A Pentecostal church in Kramatorsk was destroyed. Hundreds of evangelical and Protestant churches across the occupied territories have been demolished by Russia in pursuit of a monopoly for the Russian Eastern Orthodox Church.
An elementary school in Kyiv was attacked by a ballistic missile. A residential apartment building was struck, killing more than a dozen people.
On 30th July, Russia struck a home in Chernihiv, killing 10 members of a single family: two parents, their seven children and an 18-month-old grandson.
In Kharkiv, an infant died in a stroller as a Russian drone killed six people including two children in a park. The strike targeted a park area with a working fountain that was packed with mothers with toddlers and children riding bikes. Shrapnel tore people apart. Among the dead were a mother, Yana, and her one-year-old daughter, Analina.
Zelensky offered to halt Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries in exchange for Patriot air defence missiles.
The Trump administration has not approved interceptor missile transfers to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post. European countries including Spain and Germany have sought to transfer their Patriot missiles to Ukraine, but Trump is blocking the transfers.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis said: “I want to know who in the government is saying no to those transfers. This is not even taking it from our inventories. This is allowing it to be transferred from other European nations. Whoever that person is has blood on their hands every bit as much as Vladimir Putin.”
The United States is also delaying Patriot missiles already paid for under the NATO initiative, known as the Pearl programme, under which Europeans give money to the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine. No Patriot interceptors or defensive equipment paid for by Europeans are being delivered to Ukraine at present.
Peter Baker noted it has been a good week for Putin.
In recent days, Trump struck a diesel deal and lifted sanctions on Russia, restricted Star Shield access or speeds for Ukraine, cut intelligence warnings of Russian missile launches against Ukraine, cancelled the Lindsey Graham memorial sanctions bill, demanded that Ukraine hold elections and get rid of Zelensky, said Russia is innocent and has not been helping Iran, and pushed Europe to resume buying Russian gas.
Russia is demanding the rest of Donetsk, claiming that once it has the remainder there will be no more war. However, Russia has also added Zaporizhzhia and Kherson to its constitution and claims Mykolaiv and Odesa as traditional Russian cities.
Analysts assess that Russia’s objective is to use Trump to force Ukraine to allow Russian forces to move past the fortress belt cities and defensive lines that Ukraine has spent four years building, which have prevented Russian advances on the battlefield. Taking Sloviansk and Kramatorsk by force would likely cost another 500,000 casualties.
Trump is reportedly panicking about the midterm elections. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found Trump’s approval rating fell to a record low of 31%, with other polls showing 28 or 29%. Fox News reported that Trump is the least popular he has ever been in the last 10 years.
Trump is said to be focusing on Russia and Ukraine to distract from Israel and Iran. Iran is prolonging talks in a stalemate to influence the US midterm elections and has been attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz, causing energy prices to spike.
A Fox News poll found 88% of Americans are extremely or very concerned about corruption in government. Voters are also concerned about inflation, high prices, gas prices, healthcare and government leadership.
A Pew Research poll found Americans like Canada the most among countries and Russia among the least, with 60% holding a somewhat cold or very cold opinion of Russia and only 8% favourable.
Putin seeks a Trump-Xi meeting to shape a Ukraine war settlement in Russia’s favour, and Trump is open to meeting Putin and Xi without Zelensky, saying Ukraine needs a new negotiator and a new president.
Trump and Putin are said to favour a new Yalta-style conference to divide the world into three spheres of influence. China’s foreign ministry said there is no information on rumoured Trump-Xi-Putin trilateral talks.
The Atlantic’s cover reads: “America is now an ally of Russia. Donald Trump has abandoned the Western Order.”
Russian state television has begun promoting the idea that the United States and Russia are allies against Europe.
A host on Channel 4 said: “I know that here in Russia, people consider America the main enemy and Europe doesn’t interest us much. We’re deceiving ourselves. It’s Europe that is our main enemy. The Germans, the French, the Poles, well, the Balts.”
“A simple example, we have never fought a major war with the United States. There were minor skirmishes, but that’s all. But how many lives were laid down fighting European countries?”
“In the last war, we lost 27 million human lives, not fighting the United States, but fighting Germany and the European countries that attacked the USSR. What for? To divide and colonise Russia.”
“It seems to me that the thesis that our enemy is America is a legacy of the Soviet Union, for which a defeated Europe was of no interest back then.”
Dutch Defence Secretary Ruben Brekelmans said F-35 software could be jailbroken like an iPhone and that it is not safe to operate or use American military equipment. The assessment follows concerns that Trump and Elon Musk are willing to shut off services and allow Ukrainian civilians to die with defensive weaponry.
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