LENINGRAD REGION — Ukrainian forces conducted coordinated drone strikes against three strategic oil facilities in Russia's Leningrad region between March 23 and March 26, targeting the Baltic ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga and the Kirishi oil refinery.

The first strike occurred on March 23 when Ukrainian drones attacked the Baltic port of Primorsk. Two days later on March 25, Ukrainian forces struck the port of Ust-Luga, followed by an attack on March 26 against one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the Kirishi district. Leningrad regional Governor Aleksandr Drozdenko documented fires on his Telegram channel during the first two days of the attacks and reported damage in the industrial area of the Kirishi district.

"This is the most serious threat to exports of Russian oil and oil products since the war began," said Boris Aronstein, an energy analyst. "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."

An analysis on March 25 estimated that 40 percent of Russia's oil export capacity had been halted, describing it as the most severe oil supply disruption in modern Russian history. Energy analyst Boris Aronstein said that the share of halted oil export capacity for Russia would be closer to 50 percent. The export capacity estimates encompass damage from strikes in northern Russia, reduced export traffic through the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, reduced traffic through the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine, and disruptions caused by seizures of Russian tankers from its shadow fleet.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air said that Primorsk, Ust-Luga, and Novorossiisk had not loaded any oil for five days. "While Russia has previously restored damaged refineries within weeks, Ukraine's campaign of repeated drone strikes has deliberately slowed recovery timelines," said Isaac Levy, a CREA analyst. "Refineries have been re-hit during repairs or restarts, often in two-to-three week cycles, keeping key sites offline and turning routine maintenance into prolonged disruptions."

Military analyst Yan Matveyev assessed the extent of damage to the facilities. "As far as we know, in both ports there has been serious damage to the terminals themselves and, above all, to the oil depots. Several of them were on fire in both Primorsk and Ust-Luga," Matveyev said. "The main question is how badly damaged the port infrastructure for transshipments of oil and oil products was. If the equipment itself was damaged, it could lead to a serious pause in the loading of oil and fuel."

The attacks on the Leningrad region facilities occurred as Ukrainian forces expanded their targeting of Russian oil infrastructure across multiple regions. Ukrainian drones have attacked tankers in the Black Sea and struck oil targets in the Caspian Sea. In March 2026, loading at the Novorossiisk oil-loading facility declined following a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil pumping station that serves the port.