Drones attacked Russia’s Ust-Luga port on the Baltic Sea setting it on fire as Ukraine carried out the most intense air strike on its foe in more than a year.
The fire at the port was being contained, local governor Alexander Drozdenko said in a Telegram statement early Wednesday, without specifying exactly which facility was damaged.
Ust-Luga is a key Russian oil-export outlet on the Baltic, shipping some 450,000 barrels of crude per day last month. The port also hosts Novatek PJSC’s oil-products terminal as well as facilities for shipping coal, fertilizers and general cargo.
Earlier this week, Ukraine hit Primorsk, another important Baltic oil-export facility for Russia, causing at least a 36-hour hiatus in cargo loadings, according to shipping information seen by Bloomberg.
Russia intercepted a total of 389 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said. That’s the highest number since March 10, 2025, according to the state-run Tass news agency.
While Ukraine hasn’t taken responsibility for the attack on Ust-Luga, officials in Kyiv have on numerous occasions said their attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure aim to curtail the Kremlin’s oil revenue, which helps finance the invasion, and reduce fuel supplies to the front lines.
Any sustained disruptions in oil exports from Russia’s Baltic ports are set to contribute to concerns about a global shortage as the war in the Middle East, now in its fourth week, continues to roil markets.