Ukraine hits major Russian port in 400-drone barrage

Smoke rising from the Russian oil terminal at Primorsk, the most important Russian loading port in the Baltic Sea, following a drone attack claimed by Ukraine. Photo / AFP

Russia says a Ukrainian attack sparked a fire at a major port in the country’s northwest in a barrage of almost 400 drones, launched a day after a record Russian aerial assault on Ukraine.

A power plant in Estonia was also hit by a drone that had flown into the Nato member from Russian airspace, while another crashed into Latvian territory, with officials saying these were Ukrainian drones gone astray.

The attack came after Russia fired nearly 1000 drones at Ukraine over a 24-hour period starting late on Monday, killing a total of eight people across the country, hitting the historic centre of Lviv and residential houses in western Ukraine during Tuesday evening rush hour.

Firefighters extinguish a fire in a building following a Russian drone attack in Lviv. Photo / Yuriy Dyachyshyn, AFP

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy slammed what he called Russia’s “absolute depravity” and vowed a response to the pummelling.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday that its air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 389 Ukrainian drones overnight, mostly in regions that border Ukraine as well as around Moscow.

The attack triggered a fire at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, an oil exporting hub on the Gulf of Finland, close to Russia’s border with Estonia.

The blaze was “being brought under control”, regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko said on social media, adding that no casualties had been reported.

Drozdenko did not specify which part of the port had been hit. The facility is a major hub for Russian fertilisers, oil and coal exports.

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces claimed the attack, saying oil loading and unloading facilities had been hit.

Earlier this week, Ukraine struck another of Russia’s major Baltic Sea ports – Primorsk – triggering a large fire that poured thick black smoke into the air, visible from satellite images.

‘No real progress’

A Ukrainian rocket attack also dealt “serious damage” to electricity and water facilities in the Russian border region of Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

A man was killed in the region after a drone struck a car. “The driver died at the scene from his injuries,” Gladkov said on Telegram.

Two people were also killed in the Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Kremlin-installed authorities said.

Ukraine has been intensifying its retaliatory attacks on Russia’s infrastructure – including refineries, oil depots and ports – in past weeks, calling it fair retribution and an attempt to cut Russia’s energy proceeds that fund its war effort.

EU and Nato member Estonia said on Wednesday that a drone coming from Russian airspace hit a chimney of the Auvere power plant, near the town of Narva on the Russian border, causing no injuries.

Neighbouring Latvia also said a drone had entered its airspace “from Russia”, but that no damage or casualties were reported.

Tallinn and Riga – both staunch allies of Kyiv – said the drones were Ukrainian devices that flew off-course.

“This drone was not directed at us,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said on X, while Latvia’s Prime Minister Evika Silina stated that Ukraine was “defending itself, and we must respond with understanding”.

The escalation in strikes comes as US-brokered talks between Moscow and Kyiv appear to have stalled amid the war in the Middle East.

Ukraine sent a delegation to the United States last weekend in a bid to revive the negotiation process, but the effort yielded no immediate result.

“Unfortunately, there is no real progress as yet,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday after meeting with his negotiating team back from the talks.

“Russia does not want to move towards peace.”

– Agence France-Presse