A drone attack set a fire in the port area of Ust-Luga, on Russia’s Baltic Sea coast in the north-west, on November 11, injuring three workers, according to regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko, who reported it on Telegram. Ukraine said it launched the attack. The Ust-Luga port attack has drawn statements from both governments, but independent confirmation of the damage is limited.
The Straits Times, citing the governor’s Telegram post, reported that the attack also left a power station cut off. Drozdenko said 150 drones were shot down over the Leningrad region as a result of the attack.
Ukraine’s General Staff said the strikes damaged five oil tanks with a total volume of 150,000 cubic meters, along with a hydrocracking unit, an air cooling unit and a pumping station, according to a report on Reddit’s r/worldnews. The Straits Times reported the General Staff’s statement that five tanks were damaged and that the tank network suffered the most damage, according to preliminary information. No Russian official statement on the tank damage has been reported.
Ukraine’s Security Service said Ukrainian forces also struck the missile boat Naro-Fominsk in the same attack, and that the extent of damage to some helicopters was being assessed. These claims have not been independently confirmed.
The independent news outlet ASTRA reported a large fire near Ust-Luga on November 11, according to a post on Reddit’s r/europe. Residents of the Kingisepp district shared footage that ASTRA said it had not independently verified. Citing NASA’s FIRMS satellite system, ASTRA also said thermal hotspots were detected within the Ust-Luga port area that day.
Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest commercial seaports on the Baltic Sea. It handles crude oil, petroleum products, coal, LNG and other cargo. The EU, Canada, the UK, the US and Switzerland have sanctioned the port.
The reported attack came hours after Ukrainian drones reportedly targeted the Omsk refinery, according to reports citing the Moscow Times and a monitoring channel. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has said the port was previously struck on September 1.
The main gaps are the extent of the fire, which has not been independently confirmed, and the damage claimed by Ukraine’s General Staff, which Moscow has not addressed. Some of the sources were available only as headlines or short excerpts, and the details about Omsk rest on secondary reports.
The sources do not say what comes next for the port, its repairs, or any response from Moscow or Kyiv beyond the statements already reported.
Sources
This article was written with AI assistance from the published reporting listed above. It is part of the World Brief daily news podcast.