Strike drones targeted an oil-loading pier in Primorsk, Leningrad region, and likely struck a Pantsir surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery system that was guarding the facility.
According to the Astra media outlet, the port infrastructure was attacked overnight from May 2 to May 3, 2026, resulting in a fire at the site.
Aleksandr Drozdenko, the region’s governor, wrote on his Telegram channel that a fire broke out in Primorsk as a result of repelling the attack, and that the consequences of the blaze have now been eliminated.
At the same time, the NASA FIRMS monitoring service is currently detecting a fire at the site. According to the service, the fire was recorded at 4:17 a.m.
Among the affected areas, it is evident that the fire broke out at the oil-loading pier and at a location where, according to Astra, a Pantsir air defense system had been deployed.
Ukrainian drones have not targeted the port of Primorsk for the first time. On April 5, 2026, strike drones damaged a section of an oil pipeline in the port area.
On March 27, 2026, drones also carried out a significant strike on the facility. The attack came after Militarnyi reported on March 25 that oil tankers had stopped entering this Russian oil port.
According to the MarineTraffic service, as of late March, no vessels were recorded at the berths; all were anchored in nearby waters.
Transneft-Port Primorsk is Russia’s largest oil export port on the Baltic Sea and a key hub for exporting crude oil and petroleum products.
It is the final point of the Baltic Pipeline System, with a throughput capacity of about 1 million barrels per day.
The port’s marine section includes nine berths, most of which are used exclusively by oil tankers. The water depth of up to 18.2 meters allows it to accommodate vessels with a deadweight of up to 150,000 tons.
The facility is one of the three main oil ports in the European part of Russia, alongside the port of Ust-Luga (Laukaansuu) in the Leningrad region and the port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea.
