For the port of St. Petersburg, this means the loss of three million tons of cargo yearly.
The Great Port of St. Petersburg stopped shipping saltpetre
According to Russian media, the Great Port of St. Petersburg stopped transhipping saltpetre in February. This means the port of St. Petersburg will lose three million tons of cargo per year.
For the port, which is already in a difficult situation due to the loss of trade operations with Europe, this is quite a significant blow, the message says.
According to sources, the operation was stopped due to a ban by the authorities amid fears of drone attacks, while a decision was made to move the saltpeter transshipment outside the city limits.
Ust-Luga is being considered a new place for transshipping saltpetre. However, the city is not ready to accept saltpetre, as the port needs modern infrastructure.
It is worth noting that the day before, the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation recognised the stoppage of fuel production at several oil refineries and announced the search for a way to solve the problem. This came amid increasing reports of drone strikes on oil refineries in various regions.
What is known about drone strikes on Russian refineries?
Since January, Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian oil infrastructure, striking major oil refineries to damage the supply of the Russian army.
Recently, Ukrainian drones attacked as many as three oil refineries in the Samara region; they are Rosneft plants. Also recently, a drone attacked one of the largest oil refineries in Yaroslavl.
In addition, Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) drones hit an oil refinery in Tuapse, causing a massive fire. The other day, it became known that Ukrainian drones attacked an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia.
The Insider publication calculated that in 2024, there were 15 drone attacks on 13 oil refineries in nine regions of the Russian Federation. Of them, eight objects suffered significant damage.
