Drone strike sparks fire at Russia’s Ust-Luga port

A drone attack overnight on Nov. 11 started a fire in the port zone of Ust-Luga, one of Russia's main Baltic Sea export hubs, and injured three workers, Leningrad Region Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said. He said "several drone strikes" hit the port area in the Kingisepp municipality and that the workers' injuries were not life-threatening, according to TASS as carried by BSS. Russian officials put the night's toll at about 150 drones downed over the region, and the attack set off air alerts in neighboring NATO countries.bssnews.net

Fire, power outage and drone count

Drozdenko first said a strike in the port zone had caused a fire and that "the necessary forces and equipment have arrived to extinguish it," Russia's state news agency TASS reported. He also said a transformer substation in Ust-Luga had gone into an emergency shutdown. Reuters reported that Drozdenko's early figure was 146 drones shot down. After the drone alert was lifted, he raised the preliminary total to 150, according to TASS via BSS.reuters.com+2

Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova Plus reported fires and explosions at the site. It also reported drone activity in other Russian regions, including Smolensk, Tver and Adygea, The Kyiv Independent reported. Kyiv did not immediately comment on the strike.kyivindependent.com

Alerts across the Baltic

Ust-Luga lies about 30 kilometers from Estonia. The Estonian Defense Forces issued "potential air threat" warnings for southern counties around 3:15 a.m. and then for eastern Lääne-Viru and Ida-Viru counties, telling residents to "seek shelter if you spot a drone," ERR News reported. The warnings were lifted around 5:30 a.m. Latvia and Lithuania also issued drone warnings, and Finland put temporary partial restrictions on airspace and shipping, according to Reuters. The Baltic states said NATO air defenses and fighter jets were activated, Al Jazeera reported.news.err.ee+2

A repeated target during peace talks

Ust-Luga ships oil, oil products, grain and other commodities, Reuters noted. The European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Switzerland have sanctioned the port over its role in moving Russian crude through the "shadow fleet," The Kyiv Independent reported. On Sept. 1, Ukrainian drones hit the Novatek-Ust-Luga complex and damaged an oil-processing unit.reuters.com+1

The latest strike comes days after a Ukrainian drone hit Russia's second-largest oil refinery, in Kirishi in the same region, where local authorities said a woman was killed. It also came as US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi entered their second and final day, Al Jazeera reported. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the first day "constructive and quite substantive."aljazeera.com