Russia's Ust-Luga port damaged again in overnight drone attack
Drones struck Russia’s Ust-Luga port in Leningrad Oblast once again. Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko claimed that 38 drones were destroyed, according to Interfax. Three people were injured, including two children.
The governor confirmed damage to the Ust-Luga port. In the settlement of Molodtsovo in the Kirovsky district, falling drone debris damaged residential buildings, a school and a social facility.
This is not the first such attack on Ust-Luga. Overnight into March 25, drones hit infrastructure at the port’s oil terminal. Fires were again reported at the port overnight into March 27.
Overnight into March 29, Russian forces downed 31 drones over Leningrad Oblast, and fires were extinguished once more at Ust-Luga. According to Russian Telegram channels, the port came under attack for five consecutive days at that time.
More about the port
Ukraine’s Defense Forces describe the oil terminal at Ust-Luga as one of Russia’s key seaports on the Baltic Sea, used for exporting crude oil and petroleum products, including via the “shadow fleet.”
During previous attacks, long-range drones hit facilities belonging to the gas giant Novatek, Russia’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas. The company has been under EU and U.S. sanctions since 2014.
Russia continues to expand the port, which is set to become the largest on the Baltic Sea and the country’s second-largest overall. Novatek’s fractionation and transshipment complex at Ust-Luga, with a capacity of nearly 7 million tons per year, processes stable gas condensate into various petroleum products that Russia exports by sea, including through its shadow fleet.
Striking targets such as Ust-Luga has not only tactical but also strategic effect, as it reduces currency revenues to the Russian budget, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has explained.