MOSCOW, March 25 – A fire broke out at Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, a major oil export hub, after a major Ukrainian drone attack, Russian officials said on Wednesday.
Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and export routes over recent weeks in an attempt to weaken Russia’s war economy.
Ust-Luga and Primorsk, on the Gulf of Finland, were forced to suspend exports of oil and crude on Sunday after drone attacks but they had restarted loadings on Monday, Reuters reported.
But Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the northern Leningrad region, said on Wednesday that a fire had broken out at the port after a Ukrainian drone attack across the region. No casualties were reported.
The extent of the damage to the port was not immediately clear. Unverified video on Russian Telegram channels showed flames leaping into the night sky. A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told Reuters that the terminal had been sealed off and that reservoirs were ablaze.
Russia’s defence ministry said that 389 Ukrainian drones had been shot down across Russia overnight, including over the Moscow region.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
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