Russian Oil Exports Plunge After Drone Strikes Cripple Key Baltic Ports

A series of crippling drone strikes on key Russian ports sent the nation’s oil flows tumbling to the lowest in more than a year and dented funding for the Kremlin’s war budget, which would otherwise be overflowing thanks to surging oil prices. Baltic shipments were the lowest since Moscow’s forces invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to Bloomberg.

Repeated Ukraine drone attacks on the oil export terminals at Primorsk and Ust-Luga set storage tanks ablaze and halted loading activities for much of last week, cutting flows through the ports to about a third of the previous week’s level and reducing Moscow’s oil income by more than $1 billion.