UST-LUGA — Ukraine's Security Service claimed responsibility for the third drone attack in one week on the Ust-Luga oil export terminal, which was damaged and set ablaze in an overnight strike on March 29. Regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko said the facility was damaged and set on fire in the overnight attack.

"All oil facilities are actually part of the Russian military-industrial complex and ensure the receipt of funds to the Russian budget that go to the war against Ukraine. Russia will pay a high price for its aggression," said Major General Yevhen Khmara, head of Ukraine's Security Service, in a statement.

The attack was part of a larger overnight operation in which Ukraine launched more than 345 drones at Russian targets nationwide, according to Russia's Defense Ministry. Drozdenko said 31 drones were downed over the Leningrad region.

On March 28, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that about 60 percent of Ust-Luga's export capacity had been knocked out. Zelenskyy said unnamed partners had questioned Ukraine about the strikes and that Ukraine would stop targeting Russian facilities if Russia stopped targeting Ukraine's energy infrastructure.

Satellite imagery taken on March 27 showed large plumes of smoke and flames billowing from the Ust-Luga facility. The Primorsk oil export terminal was hit by drones a week ago. Primorsk and Ust-Luga are two of the largest terminals for exporting Russian oil to Western markets.

"This is the most serious threat to exports of Russian oil and oil products since the war began. The thoughtfulness, the scale and direction of the attacks, as well as the timing of their execution -- all of this together produced an effect that I personally cannot recall in the four-plus years of the war," energy analyst Boris Aronshtein told Current Time on March 26.

On March 29, Finland's air force said its fighter jets tracked what appeared to be a group of drones. One of the drones, identified as a Ukrainian AN196 drone, crashed near the town of Kouvola in southeastern Finland. Finland's air force said no injuries or damage were reported from the drone crash. Estonia and Latvia also reported that Ukrainian drones crashed on their territory last week.

The Ust-Luga facility also handles coal, fertilizer, and iron ore exports. Ukrainian territory is approximately 935 kilometers from the Baltic Sea, and it was not immediately clear where Ukraine was launching its drones from. The Druzhba oil export pipeline, which crosses through Ukrainian territory, has been offline for months following an unexplained explosion.