Loud explosions were heard overnight in President Vladimir Putin’s hometown of St. Petersburg, at least one of which appeared to be at an oil refinery.

Russian President Vladimir Putin accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov in Rostov-on-Don.Photo: Gavriil Grigorov / Sputnik / Profimedia

Several videos shot by surveillance cameras in St. Petersburg have appeared on social media, showing explosions ringing out from different parts of the city.

Although the Ukrainian armed forces have not yet announced an attack on the city in northwestern Russia, this is not the first time they have launched strikes in the direction of the city, located 850 kilometers from the nearest border point with Russia. and Ukraine.

For example, on January 18, a Ukrainian minister said that Kyiv forces used a domestic drone that flew 1,250 kilometers to hit an oil terminal in St. Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city after the capital Moscow.

“We hit the target last night, and this thing (without the drone) flew exactly 1,250 kilometers,” Oleksandr Kamisin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industry, who is responsible for arms production, said at the time. He ironically stated that the attack on St. Petersburg was part of “a new stage of work in this direction.”

Russian media reports that a downed Ukrainian drone accidentally landed at an oil refinery

Several Russian Telegram channels have now reported that one of the explosions overnight Tuesday into Wednesday occurred at the Nevsky Mazut oil refinery, located relatively close to the city center and close to the banks of the Neva River, which flows through St. Petersburg. .

One of Russia’s state news agencies, TASS, notes that the local administration and law enforcement agencies are “establishing the circumstances of the event at the industrial site in the Nevsky district of the city.”

“In the area of ​​fuel oil filling at the industrial site in the Nevsky district, an incident occurred that requires the attention of law enforcement agencies. They were not injured. There was no property damage. The city management cooperates with law enforcement agencies and all law enforcement agencies,” the press service of the local mayor’s office said in a statement.

Instead, the well-known St. Petersburg news site “Fontanka” reports that “the loud bangs that woke up residents of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region on the night of January 31 were the result of air defense.”

This news site claims that the Ukrainian drone was shot down by a S-400 anti-aircraft missile system at 4:20 a.m. over the city of Kolpino, and at 4:50 a.m. it fell into the perimeter of the Nevsky fuel oil plant, where several tanks caught fire. Fontanka notes that the half-hour delay was caused by the fact that the drone did not fall immediately after being hit.

The city of Kolpino is located approximately 26 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg.

According to the same source, the fire was extinguished by the teams of the Ministry of Emergency Situations.

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