Ukraine Strikes Russia's Ust-Luga Port as Peace Talks Face Major Obstacles

A drone strike on a major oil and grain export site in Russia has sparked a huge fire. The blaze happened in the port area of Ust-Luga by the Baltic Sea in the Leningrad region. Officials say that three people have been injured. Al Jazeera's Yulia Shapovalova is in Moscow. Yulia, what more are you learning about this attack? Well, according to authorities, up to 150 drones were shot down during this attack on the Leningrad region overnight. Pulkovo airport in St. Petersburg was suspending its work. Now the drone alert has been lifted. So basically the target of the attack was the Usluga port area, as you said. So as a result of the attacks, so you mentioned three people, they have been injured and also a massive fire has broken out. Firefighters have been battling the flames. The port infrastructure has been damaged. In particular, a substation has experienced an emergency shutdown there. So Ust-Luga is Russia's largest port and export hub on the Baltic Sea. Russia uses It uses it for oil, petroleum products, gas, grain and fertilizer exports. The Ukrainian side has confirmed the attack aimed at reducing Russia's revenue from energy exports. And according to Reuters, Ukrainian attacks have reduced roughly 30% of Russia's oil production capacity. Over the past two weeks, Ukrainian attacks have caused disruptions and emergencies at nine of 35 of Russia's largest refineries. And just recently, there were attacks on. Yaroslavl and Ryazan oil refineries supplying Moscow and nearby regions, as well as Kirishi refinery in St. Petersburg. And these attacks immediately have brought back restrictions to gas stations throughout the country, which have been lifted for a while in September and October. Yulia, stay with us. Some important context on energy attacks. They're having a significant impact on both Ukraine and Russia, as Yulia has just detailed. Ukraine says that Russia has damaged more than 63,000 energy facilities since the war began in 2022. The energy minister estimating more than 80 percent of the country's electricity generation has been either damaged or destroyed. The World Bank estimates that Ukraine will need nearly $91 billion to rebuild the sector in the next decade. And now on the other side, in Russia, renewed Ukrainian drone attacks since late October have affected around 30% of its oil refining capacity. Yulia was just touching on that. Nine of its 35 major refineries have faced disruptions in the past week alone. Russia's electricity network has also been targeted. An independent Russian investigation documented nearly a thousand strikes on power lines, substations, and power plants between February 2022 and May 2026. Okay, Yulia, back to you. Let's pivot to something else important that's happening that involves Russia. Russia and Ukraine are both in Abu Dhabi right now. They have delegations in Abu Dhabi along with U.S. mediators for the first peace talks in It's been eight months since February. What's Moscow saying about these negotiations? Well, according to local sources, the negotiations are to resume in about an hour's time. Actually, the Russian side hasn't commented on the first day of the talks, as well as on the fact that yesterday, on Tuesday, the parties agreed to a large-scale exchange of prisoners in the near future. We're learning that from Ukrainian sources and the U.S. sources. While the US side called the talks very successful and substantial, so today the Ukrainian side is going to raise a question about the trilateral leaders meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the US, plus the territorial question will be raised later on today at these talks. As we know, Russia hasn't changed its stance, its conditions for the end of this war. It demands, it still demands that Ukraine leave Donbass, not join NATO. Russia wants to formalize its control over four Ukrainian regions. And, well, it wants the Russian language to receive an official status in Ukraine. So it remains to be seen how Russia is... Well, whether Russia is ready to go any further during the second day of these talks today. Absolutely. Two-day talks. Yulia Shapovalova reporting from Moscow. Thank you very much. As we said, territorial control remains one of the main obstacles to reaching a deal to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that Ukraine may have to make concessions as part of any peace agreement. Audrey McAlpine has been speaking to people in Kiev about the future of their country. This week, U.S. President Donald Trump said that after all these negotiations that Ukraine may have a little bit of a different shape. And I want to ask you, what shape of Ukraine would you accept in a peace negotiation? Like, only this form of Ukraine is acceptable. Only this and nothing else. We can't cut half of country and say... It is very difficult to accept any loss of our territorial people, but if we could at least return to the situation at the beginning of 2022, when part of Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea were already occupied. I don't remember exactly how much territory, but if we could at least go back to 2014, that would be more or less acceptable. There's a saying here in Ukraine that if Russia stopped fighting, the war would end. But if Ukraine stopped fighting, it would cease to exist. For Ukrainians, the question of territory isn't just another item on the docket at the negotiating table or a bargaining chip in peace negotiations. It's the very thing that they've been fighting for nearly five years to keep. Audrey McAlpine, Al Jazeera.