Drones Hit Russia's Ust-Luga Baltic Port and Injure Three Workers

Several drones struck the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad region overnight and started a fire, Governor Alexander Drozdenko said, Kommersant reported. Three port workers were injured. Kyiv Independent, citing monitoring channels, attributed the strike to Ukraine and reported drone attacks on several other Russian regions the same night. Neither government has said which facility at the port was hit.

The attack disrupted air traffic in the Baltic. Relatives of passengers on Turkish Airlines flight TK403 told the independent Russian outlet Ostorozhno Novosti that the plane left Istanbul for St. Petersburg around 9 p.m. It landed in Helsinki instead because of the drone attack and was then heading back to Turkey. Ust-Luga is one of Russia's main Baltic outlets for crude and refined products. It has been hit repeatedly this year, including a March strike that halted loadings, The Moscow Times reported, and further attacks in August and September.

Ukraine is preparing for Russian strikes on its own infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelensky presented Northern European governments with a winter-preparedness plan that includes additional diesel supplies and better protection for bridges, Ukrinform reported. The strike came while Russian, American and Ukrainian negotiators met in Abu Dhabi. Neither side has paused long-range attacks during the talks.