Satellite images show St Petersburg damage

TLDR

• Satellite images show one oil tank destroyed at each of two St Petersburg depots, plus a large warehouse fire.¹²
• The VK data centre's roof and walls are damaged and fire traces are visible inside; equipment damage is unconfirmed.³
• Every damage assessment traces to one Telegram channel, Absolutely Reliable, and no imagery date or provider is given.¹²³

Satellite images published on 19 October show the aftermath of the 18 October drone strikes on five sites in and around St Petersburg, according to the OSINT Telegram channel Absolutely Reliable.¹²

Why it matters: the strikes hit fuel storage, logistics and a data centre in Russia's second city in one night. Governor Alexander Beglov acknowledged fires at the terminal, the Ruchyi depot and Kolpino warehouses.⁵

Driving the news:

• The Petersburg Oil Terminal lost one tank completely and two more were hit and caught fire (one RVS-15000, two RVS-10000); other tanks show cladding damage.²
• At the Ruchyi depot an RVS-5000 tank was destroyed and an RVS-1000 damaged.²
• A fire covered more than 10,000 square metres of the Ozon logistics hub in Kolpino; Holod says almost a third of the complex burned.¹⁴
• The Southern Fairway Bridge road surface and the Finland Railway Bridge lifting-section deck are damaged; the effect on rail traffic is unknown.²
• Analysts say the VK data centre's main building has "significant damage to its roof and walls" and fire traces inside, "indicating possible significant damage to the equipment".³

By the numbers:

• 640 racks and over 20,000 servers in four server rooms at the VK site, per Militarnyi.³
• 1,015 drones downed, per Russia's Defence Ministry as relayed by Cybernews.⁷

The big picture: Militarnyi notes that Ukraine launched three attacks on Yandex data centres last week.³ Euromaidan Press says Fire Point claimed FP-1 drones hit the terminal and the VK site, a week into a US-announced energy truce.⁶

The other side: VK said its services were running normally, though outage monitors logged complaint spikes.³⁵ Cybernews says it is unclear whether outages stem from the data centre or from damage to a nearby substation.⁷ Sources also differ on the bridge: UNITED24 and Holod place a strike over the Korabelny Fairway, while BBC said it could not verify reports of a bridge hit.¹⁴⁵

Single-source note: UNITED24 and Militarnyi credit all of the damage assessments to Absolutely Reliable, and Holod names no provider, so independent imagery confirmation is lacking.¹²³⁴ None states the satellite operator or capture time. The strikes themselves are independently reported.⁵⁷