Ukraine’s Security Service said on March 29 that its long-range drones had hit the oil and gas terminal at the Russian port of Ust-Luga for the second time in a week. The operation was led by the SBU’s Alpha special forces unit. The agency’s post described “serious damage” and a fire.
The regional governor, Aleksandr Drozdenko, was more guarded. He reported “damage” at the port without saying how much, and noted that rescuers were still fighting the fire at around 7 a.m. local time. Over the previous night, he said, 36 Ukrainian drones were downed over Leningrad Oblast. The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the damage.
The earlier attack came on March 27, when residents near the oil terminals on the Baltic coast heard explosions and officials warned of drones. Social media photos and video showed flames at the site. Satellite images later showed major damage to several storage and service buildings.
The money here is the point. Ust-Luga is one of Russia’s largest Baltic ports and a major hub for crude oil and petroleum product exports. It lies west of St Petersburg, far from Ukraine’s border, and its revenue feeds the state budget.
It was not the only target in the region. The General Staff confirmed a strike on the Kirishi oil refinery, known as Kinef, southeast of St Petersburg on March 26. The day before, Ukraine hit a military icebreaker in Vyborg, and photos afterward showed the ship listing.
What the campaign has changed
Kyiv relies on drones built at home to wear down Russia’s war machine from a distance, going after military sites and infrastructure that supports the army. Measuring what this does on the battlefield is hard. The oil market is a different matter. Reuters reported on March 25, based on its own calculations from market data, that at least 40% of Russia’s oil shipping capacity had stopped after repeated drone attacks.
That arrived as Washington was loosening its own sanctions. On March 12 the U.S. Treasury issued a temporary license letting countries buy Russian oil already stranded at sea, an attempt to steady global prices while the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran pushed markets higher. The shutdown of shipping through the Straits of Hormuz had shocked global oil supply.
