Ukrainian forces launched a wave of drone strikes against Russian oil infrastructure Sunday, targeting Primorsk, Russia's largest oil exporting port on the Baltic Sea, along with multiple tankers allegedly used to circumvent Western sanctions. A nighttime strike ignited a fire at Primorsk, which lies more than 620 miles from Ukrainian territory and handles hundreds of thousands of barrels per day under the operation of Russia's state oil firm Transneft, according to Russian regional Governor Alexander Drozdenko.
The two principal Baltic Sea ports, including Primorsk, account for roughly 40% of Russia's oil exports. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that forces destroyed multiple military targets and inflicted significant damage on port infrastructure. In a Telegram post, Zelenskyy stated that Ukrainian drones hit a Karakurt missile ship, a patrol boat, and a tanker belonging to Russia's shadow oil fleet—vessels used to evade international sanctions and price caps on Russian energy.
In a separate operation, Ukrainian forces struck two additional shadow fleet tankers near the entrance to Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. Zelenskyy said the tankers had been actively transporting oil and would no longer be operational, adding that the operation was led by the chief of Ukraine's general staff, Andrii Hnatov. Moscow did not immediately acknowledge either strike.
Ukrainian officials contend that Russian oil revenue directly funds Moscow's full-scale invasion, now in its fifth year. The intensification of attacks on energy infrastructure reflects a strategic shift to disrupt Russia's financial capacity to sustain military operations.
The strikes were part of a broader exchange of fire overnight into Sunday. Russia attacked Ukraine with 269 drones and ballistic missiles, of which Ukrainian air forces shot down and repelled 249 drones. Ballistic missiles and 19 additional drones struck 15 locations across Ukraine. Russian forces reported downing 334 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over Russian territory and occupied Crimea.
In Ukraine, Russian drone strikes killed two people and wounded three others in the southern Odesa region, damaging three residential buildings and port infrastructure. A separate Russian attack in the Dnipropetrovsk region wounded six people, though a passenger bus carrying 40 children sustained damage without casualties aboard. In Russia, a Ukrainian drone strike west of Moscow killed a 77-year-old man near Volokolamsk, approximately 75 miles from the capital, according to regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov. He reported that six drones were shot down in the Moscow region, with at least five more intercepted on approach to Moscow itself.
