A drone attack set fire to the Ust-Luga port area in Kingisepp District, on the Gulf of Finland, overnight on November 10-11. Leningrad Region governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said initial information indicated that three port employees were injured, but their lives were not in danger. He also said the port’s transformer substation shut down in an emergency.

Ust-Luga is a major outlet for Russian exports, handling oil and petroleum products as well as gas, fertilizers, coal, grain and other cargo. The damage has not been quantified, and the reports did not say whether exports were interrupted.

What is known about the wider drone wave

The Ukrainian news outlet Kyiv Independent and other accounts attributed the strike to Ukraine, but Reuters said it could not independently verify the reports. Drozdenko’s account described the drones as hostile without identifying their origin. His reported regional tally was 150 drones downed over Leningrad Region in some accounts and 146 in others; neither figure represents the number that reached the port.

Russia’s Defence Ministry separately said 627 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones were downed across 22 Russian regions, annexed Crimea and the Sea of Azov. That nationwide figure was the ministry’s report, distinct from the Leningrad Region totals.

The attack also disrupted St Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, which temporarily stopped operations. In Smolensk Region, governor Vasili Anokhin said 37 Ukrainian drones were downed; he said debris from one struck a residential building in Yartsevo, causing a fire that killed two civilians.

Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia issued warnings about a drone threat, while Finland temporarily restricted parts of its air and maritime space. The reports did not specify whether those measures were linked to the Ust-Luga strike.

Why the location and timing matter

The European Commission says Ust-Luga is used to ship Russian crude through the so-called shadow fleet and other high-risk shipping practices aimed at evading sanctions. The port is also under sanctions imposed by the European Union, Canada, Britain, the United States and Switzerland.

Ukraine has said its broader campaign against Russia’s energy sector aims to reduce Kremlin revenues and weaken Moscow’s ability to finance the war; the stated aim was not tied specifically to this strike. The attack came hours before the second day of US-mediated Russia-Ukraine peace talks began in Abu Dhabi on November 11.