Ukraine struck an oil terminal outside St Petersburg early on Saturday in another long-range attack on Russian energy infrastructure.

Dozens of Ukrainian drones targeted Russia’s second city overnight, with one striking the terminal and another crashing in the grounds of the Peterhof, the historical home of Russian tsars.

Alexander Beglov, the governor of St Petersburg, wrote on social media that “an oil terminal in the city’s Kirovsky district” had been hit and said Russian air defences had shot down 72 drones.

One fell in the grounds of the 18th-century palace complex, which served as the summer residence of the Russian imperial family. Mr Beglov said the “technical consequences” at the oil terminal had been dealt with, and nobody had been injured.

St Petersburg, the birthplace of Vladimir Putin, is roughly 700 miles from the Ukrainian border. Kyiv last mounted a significant drone attack on the city in early June, when the Russian leader was attending an economic forum.

On Saturday, Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of Leningrad region, which surrounds St Petersburg, said drone wreckage had fallen near the port of Vysotsk, close to the Finnish border.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, claimed the operation had struck a key Russian military facility.

“Ukraine’s defence forces struck port oil infrastructure that generates revenue for Russia’s war, and also hit Kronstadt, an important military target more than 850km (530 miles) from Ukraine’s state border,” he wrote on Telegram.

Kronstadt, a naval base near St Petersburg, was also targeted in the June strikes. Russia did not immediately comment on Mr Zelensky’s claim that the base had been hit again.

The attack came two days after Russia launched one of its largest aerial assaults on Kyiv, killing at least 30 people, setting fire to the roofs of high-rise apartment blocks and forcing more than 50,000 residents to shelter overnight in the capital’s metro.

Ukraine’s latest strikes on Russia underline its growing ability to hit strategic targets deep inside Russian territory.

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The St Petersburg oil terminal, situated on the Gulf of Finland, is one of Russia’s principal Baltic export hubs, with capacity to load four tankers simultaneously.

Repeated Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries, fuel depots and export terminals have put increasing pressure on domestic fuel supplies.

Russian authorities have introduced fuel rationing in occupied Crimea and in a growing number of Russian regions.

Footage posted on social media on Friday showed traffic stretching for several miles from a petrol station in Siberia as motorists queued for hours.

According to Russian regional authorities, fuel rationing has been introduced in at least 55 of the country’s 83 regions.

Putin has acknowledged the shortages, saying: “We are aware of them and are responding to them. We will undoubtedly overcome all the challenges facing us today, including terrorist attacks on our territory and infrastructure facilities.”

The aerial attack came as Ukraine dismissed “a lie” by Moscow that Russian forces had captured the strategic eastern city of Kostiantynivka.

On Friday, Russian state media published footage showing Putin, dressed in military fatigues, meeting senior commanders at what the Kremlin described as an unidentified frontline command post.

During the meeting, Gen Valery Gerasimov, Russia’s chief of the general staff, reported that Russian forces had captured Kostiantynivka after weeks of heavy fighting.

Putin welcomed the reported advance and dismissed suggestions that Russia’s summer offensive had stalled as part of a Ukrainian “information campaign”.

Mr Zelensky said in response: “He claims that Russian forces have supposedly captured Kostiantynivka in the Donbas. Of course, that is not true. It is just another Russian lie.”