Russia’s Ust-Luga Port Takes New Damage in Ukraine Drone Attack
(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s Ust-Luga port sustained fresh damage from a Ukrainian drone attack, as Kyiv steps up strikes on Russian oil export infrastructure.
The Leningrad region came under a fresh Ukrainian drone attack overnight, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said in a Telegram post early Sunday. Air defenses have shot down 31 drones so far, while the emergency services are working to put down a fire at Ust-Luga port, he said.
The Leningrad region on the Baltic coast hosts major Russian export hubs and has come under repeated Ukrainian attacks over the past week.
Loadings at Ust-Luga have been halted since Wednesday after it sustained significant damage, endangering Russian oil exports. Another port in the region, Primorsk, has also sustained damage. Just before the recent Ukrainian attacks, Primorsk and Ust-Luga handled about 45%, or 1.72 million barrels a day, of Russia’s seaborne crude exports, shipment data seen by Bloomberg show.
The damage to both ports threatens to blunt a potential boost to Russian oil export revenues from price increases sparked by the Iran war. The jump had given President Vladimir Putin an opportunity to cover part of a widening budget gap as the economy slows.
Both Russia and Ukraine strike each other daily with drones and, at times, missiles as the war enters its fifth year. Ukraine’s attacks are aimed at cutting Russian profits used to sustain the war, often targeting oil, energy and other industrial infrastructure.
Russia often hits civilian infrastructure in addition to industrial sites. Overnight, eight people were injured in a Russian drone attack in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, according to regional authorities.
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