Ust-Luga

Ust-Luga is Russia's largest Baltic Sea oil and petroleum products terminal, located in Leningrad Oblast, handling crude, fuel oil, gasoline, and LPG. Between 22 and 31 March 2026, Ukrainian drones struck Ust-Luga and nearby Primorsk at least four times. The result was a 43% collapse in Russian seaborne crude exports in a single week — from 4.07 million Barrels Per Day to 2.32 million bpd — the steepest weekly decline in modern Russian export history.

Ust-Luga halted all fuel oil and gasoline intake on 25 March, triggering a cascade that shut the Kirishi refinery and threatened three further refineries in Yaroslavl, Moscow, and Ryazan. Russia responded by imposing a gasoline export ban from 1 April through 31 July 2026. Ust-Luga resumed crude loading on 5 April, but with combined Baltic throughput at a year-low of 115,000 tonnes per day and Primorsk berths reduced from ten to four. Carnegie analysis confirmed strikes cut Russian crude exports from 5.2 to 3.5 million bpd between 25 March and 11 April — a 33% volume cut — even as Iran-driven prices partially offset the revenue loss.

The terminal is a linchpin of Russia's war-funding infrastructure; oil and gas revenues account for roughly 30% of Russia's federal budget. A sustained campaign against Ust-Luga and Primorsk has greater fiscal impact per sortie than frontline artillery exchanges. The EU's 20th sanctions package (23 April) added seven Russian refineries to its designation list, compounding pressure on the entire export and processing chain that Ust-Luga feeds.