A drone strike sparked a fire at Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga on Sunday, marking the second reported attack on the major exporting hub within days, according to Hurriyet Daily News. The strike is part of a series of escalating cross-border assaults between Russia and Ukraine, both expanding their confrontation beyond the front lines.
Regional governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed the incident on social media, saying that emergency crews were working to extinguish the blaze. “There is damage to the port of Ust-Luga. There were no casualties,” he said. According to Drozdenko, thirty-six drones were destroyed overnight in the region, though some managed to cause damage.
Ust-Luga, located near the Gulf of Finland, is one of Russia’s key terminals for exporting fertilizers, coal, and oil products. Satellite images earlier this week showed smoke rising from the port after a previous drone strike, which Ukraine later claimed responsibility for. The latest fire suggests that the facility remains a target in Ukraine’s ongoing campaign to hit Russia’s energy infrastructure.
Kyiv has said its repeated strikes on Russian refineries, depots, and ports are aimed at cutting Moscow’s oil revenues, which help fund its ongoing military operations in Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the latest attack.
Nearby, another major Baltic port, Primorsk, was struck earlier in the week, igniting fires visible from space. The incidents together underline Ukraine’s growing use of long-range drones to pressure Russian logistics and energy routes deep inside its territory.
Meanwhile, in Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border, a man was killed in two drone strikes on the city of Grayvoron, according to regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. He accused Ukraine’s military of carrying out the attack. Belgorod has been repeatedly shelled and targeted by drones in recent weeks, causing civilian injuries and property damage.
Ukraine’s air force reported that in the same night, Russia launched a massive aerial offensive involving 442 drones and a missile, with Ukrainian forces claiming to have intercepted or destroyed 380 of them.
