Image caption, Ukraine's military described St Petersburg's oil terminal as one of the largest in Russia A major oil terminal in Russia's second city of St Petersburg in the north-west was struck overnight by Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. He described it as key infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia's war. Ukraine also said a major Russian naval base in the region was hit. St Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov said the city was under a massive drone attack, admitting the oil terminal was hit. Ukraine has recently intensified its long-range drone attacks on Russia's critical energy infrastructure, causing widespread fuel shortages.

Is the war entering a new phase? A wave of Ukrainian long-range drones has struck the St Petersburg region overnight, hitting an oil terminal and a Baltic Sea port in one of the largest deep-strike operations targeting President Vladimir Putin's home city. Leningrad region Governor Alexander Drozdenko said air defences shot down 72 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the region on Saturday. Russian authorities briefly halted flight operations at Pulkovo Airport and throttled municipal mobile internet networks to jam the drones' cellular-backed navigation systems. St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said that one drone crashed in the grounds of the 18th-century Peterhof Palace complex, and another hit an oil terminal in the city's Kirovsky district.

He studied drones for three months - and yet they still threw him into a frontal assault, into the meat grinder, said Valery Averin's foster mother Oksana Afanayeva. The 23-year-old is among the first Russian students known to have been killed in Ukraine after signing up as part of a new large-scale drive to recruit young people from universities and colleges into Russia's drone forces. He had never even served in the army, Afanasyeva complained. The campaign to encourage students at universities, technical colleges and vocational schools to sign army contracts began early this year, as Russia sought to sustain its war effort into a fifth year. It has focused particularly on those struggling academically or considering taking a break from their studies.

US Ambassador Mike Waltz scolded Iran at the UN Security Council, saying Tehran 'will not silence' the body after Iranian attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait.

Is the war entering a new phase? The overpriced gas Anatoly has been buying in recent weeks in Moscow will ruin his white Kia's engine. "It's low-quality," the taxi driver told Al Jazeera withholding his last name for security purposes. "The engine already sounds like a sick heart The government allows a'temporary decrease in quality,' but what am I to do when I need new spare parts" that are barely available because of Western sanctions, he asked rhetorically. They don't knock, they kick the door," said the 49-year-old with a three-day stubble and bloodshot eyes. Russia's top military brass has not commented on Ukraine's assaults. But even the Kremlin's most outspoken supporters have changed their once-triumphant tune. "We have to get ready for hardships and self-sacrifice," Vladimir Solovyov, a popular talk show host on the Rossiya 1 television network, said in mid-June. Solovyov has a penchant for aggressive, loud monologues and military-style attire. He once urged the Kremlin to "erase" Ukrainian cities with nuclear strikes and said that Kyiv and its Western allies "serve the prince of darkness." Military bloggers are even more pessimistic because of their proximity to the frontline. One of them, Prizrak Novorossii (The Ghost of New Russia), wrote on Telegram in late June that the Kremlin should conduct a massive mobilisation campaign because Russians already "foresee big changes and possible cataclysms because of, to put it mildly, the unfavourable dynamics of hostilities." The reason is simple - outmanned Ukrainians use "an asymmetrical tactic of long-range drone strikes with technological solutions that Russia is only catching up on," he wrote. "So, the question isn't about whether or not to have mobilisation, but about how to conduct it," the blogger concluded, adding that recent events "inspire little optimism." 'I'm afraid my son will be drafted' "I'm afraid my son will be drafted, but we don't have money to send him abroad," Kseniya, a mother of two from the western city of Tula, told Al Jazeera. She withheld her last name and personal details for security purposes. "We've been told a thousand times that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin brought stability, and instead, we see total chaos.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian officials say at least four people have been killed and 10 injured in the latest Russian attacks, a day after Moscow hit Kyiv in the deadliest series of attacks this year. In the bordering Sumy region, two women, an elderly man and a toddler were killed and three others injured after a Russian drone hit a residential apartment building, Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional military administration, said on Friday. Two of the injured women remain in hospital, said Vilkul, adding that nine apartment blocks, a school building, a company, several shops, garages and about 10 vehicles were damaged. Two residential buildings were also cut off from the gas supply.

Russia launched one of its heaviest attacks on Kyiv with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, killing at least 18 people. Ukraine President Zelenskyy called air defense an absolute priority.

Pentagon officials are weighing whether to disperse U.S. military bases in the Gulf after Iranian missile and drone attacks exposed vulnerabilities at major Middle East installations.

Russian forces have launched a major drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, killing at least eight people, officials say. Several neighbourhoods were evacuated as strikes rocked buildings throughout the city, hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russia was preparing for a massive attack. Children were among the significant number of casualties, Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv's military administration, said. The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians, he said in the early hours of Thursday. On Thursday morning, daylight brought clearer images of a crater which appeared to be caused by the impact of explosions.

Is the war entering a new phase? Kyiv came under a ballistic missile and drone attack overnight, with at least two people killed and 11 injured after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned of an impending "massive" attack by Russia. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, writing on the Telegram messaging platform, said the roof of a hotel was on fire early on Thursday morning. "Kyiv is under attack from ballistic missiles and UAVs," Klitschko wrote, using the acronym for unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. Klitschko later said that 11 people were injured, with others trapped in a damaged nine-storey residential building, and the roof of another high-rise apartment building on fire.