Governor says drone attacks cause fires at the Russian energy export port Ust-Luga

On Friday, firefighter battled a blaze at Russia's Baltic Sea port Ust-Luga - a major hub for energy exports - after a fire was sparked by an arial attack, according to regional governor Aleksander Drozdenko on the messaging app Telegram.

He added that more than 50 drones had been downed by the Leningrad area, while the area around Ust-Luga - a centre for oil exports and oil-based products - continued to'repel the attack.

The extent of the damage is not immediately clear. This attack continues Ukraine's tactic of attacking Russian oil export and processing facilities, as well as grain shipping routes in an attempt to deny Moscow revenue and force it into ending the war.

The armed forces of NATO and the European Union said that fighter jets had shot down a drone which entered the airspace over Latvia on Friday. Finland also temporarily restricted certain parts of the Baltic Sea as a precautionary measure against drone attacks.

Ukraine has repeatedly struck more than a dozen refineries in Russia. Russia is one of the largest oil producers on earth. This has caused a fuel crisis at home.

Sergei Sobyanin, the mayor of Moscow and home to a large oil processing plant, said in a Telegram message on Friday that more than a dozen drones were shot down overnight. (Reporting and editing by Tom Hogue in Tokyo, Clarence Fernandez, and Jekaterina Glubkova)

(source: Reuters)