Ukraine Is Burning Russia's Oil Cash Flow
Russia thought it had a windfall coming.
When the Iran war effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz and sent oil prices surging, Moscow was positioned to pocket around $760 million a day from energy exports. War elsewhere was becoming a revenue stream.
Ukraine had other plans.
In the span of five days, Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s two largest Baltic oil export facilities — Ust-Luga and Primorsk — three separate times. Then came a fourth hit: the KINEF Kirishi refinery, one of Russia’s largest, processing around 350,000 barrels a day. Satellite imagery confirmed that one loading berth at Ust-Luga was completely destroyed, a second was damaged, and fires burned near storage tanks across the facility. Three tankers were also hit.
The target selection wasn’t random. Together, Ust-Luga and Primorsk handle roughly 60% of Russia’s maritime oil flow. Last year alone, Ust-Luga exported 32.9 million metric tons of oil products; Primorsk another 16.8 million. These aren’t soft targets — they’re the financial arteries of Russia’s war machine.
Zelenskyy framed it plainly: if international sanctions won’t squeeze Russia’s energy revenues, Ukraine will do it directly. The strikes are Kyiv’s answer to what it sees as diplomatic failure.
The deeper logic here is economic warfare. Ukraine can’t match Russia on the artillery line dollar for dollar — but it can raise the cost of the war for Moscow by attacking the infrastructure that pays for it. Every berth that burns is a hole in the Kremlin’s budget.
Russia was trying to profit from chaos in the Middle East. Ukraine just reminded it that chaos works both ways.