Ust-Luga on fire after drone attack: Russia’s largest Baltic port

A fire broke out at the port of Ust-Luga in the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region after a drone attack. 150 drones were shot down over the region, but several reached their target, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said.

According to his preliminary information, the fire started in the port area after drone strikes. The governor later added that a transformer substation at Ust-Luga was knocked out and three workers were injured. The Ukrainian drone strike was confirmed by the monitoring channel Exilenova+ and independent Russian investigative journalists.

Ust-Luga, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, is Russia’s largest port on the Baltic Sea. Because of its role in the war against Ukraine, the port has been sanctioned by the European Union, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and Switzerland. Russia uses it to export oil via the “shadow fleet”. It also has terminals for handling coal, sulfur, mineral fertilizers, gas condensate, liquefied natural gas and container cargo. As Ukrainian sources note, that makes the port strategically important for the Russian economy and its military-industrial complex.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz