Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Terminals, Disrupting Baltic Port Shipments for Weeks

Ukrainian drones struck Russia's Baltic Sea port of Primorsk and the Lukoil-operated NORSI refinery in the Nizhny Novgorod region on April 5, deepening a weeks-long campaign against Russian energy infrastructure that has already slashed the country's seaborne oil exports to their lowest level since the 2022 invasion began.

Ukraine's drone forces commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi confirmed the overnight strikes on Primorsk and the Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery in Kstovo, framing the operation as a coordinated blow to Russia's oil sector. In the Leningrad region, air defense systems intercepted 19 drones near Primorsk. Governor Alexander Drozdenko confirmed that shrapnel from an intercepted drone struck a fuel reservoir in the port area, causing a leak, and that a separate oil pipeline was also damaged. No injuries were reported.

Far to the southeast, Russia's fourth-largest oil refinery bore the brunt of another wave of UAVs. Nizhny Novgorod Governor Gleb Nikitin said air defenses repelled 30 drones over the Kstovo industrial zone overnight. "As a result of falling debris, two facilities at the Kstovo refinery sustained damage followed by fires," Nikitin wrote on Telegram. "The fires have been contained." The Novogorkovskaya combined heat and power plant was also struck in the same attack, with Nikitin noting that power restoration to consumers was underway.

The April 5 strikes compounded damage from a relentless campaign that began in the final week of March. Ust-Luga, Russia's other major Baltic oil hub handling roughly 700,000 barrels per day, was struck five times in 10 days: on March 22, 25, 27, 29, and 31. Primorsk, capable of exporting up to 1 million barrels daily, had not accepted diesel deliveries since March 22. By April 3, industry sources said both ports remained unable to handle incoming shipments, forcing Russian refiners to pursue costlier alternative export routes.

The toll on Russia's oil revenues has been severe. Russian seaborne crude exports collapsed by 1.75 million barrels per day in the week ending March 29, falling to 2.32 million barrels per day from 4.07 million the week before. Only 22 tankers loaded 16.23 million barrels that week, compared to 37 ships hauling 28.5 million barrels the previous week. During that same window, only six tankers departed Primorsk and Ust-Luga combined, down from 18 the week prior. Bloomberg estimated Russia's oil income losses at more than $1 billion.

Satellite imagery published by Reuters showed that approximately 40 percent of Primorsk's oil storage capacity burned out during the March attacks, with eight tanks of 50,000 cubic meters each destroyed. At some point last month, roughly 40 percent of Russia's total oil export capacity was simultaneously offline, the result of the Baltic port strikes, closures on the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine, and seizures of Russia-linked tankers in international waters.

The campaign continued even as Ukraine faced pressure from allied governments to pause drone attacks on Russian refineries, citing concerns that strikes were worsening global fuel prices already inflated by effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was touring the Middle East at the time of the April 5 strikes, acknowledged on March 30 that several allied nations had warned of potential repercussions from the continued targeting of energy infrastructure. Kyiv pressed forward regardless, signaling that disrupting Kremlin oil revenues remains a central feature of its war strategy.