Russia reports fire in new Ukrainian strike on major Baltic port

admin — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 16:18:00 +0000

The northwestern port suffered damage this week when it was targeted by drones in a previous attack claimed by Ukraine’s military.
| Photo Credit: AFP

A drone strike claimed by Ukraine triggered a fire at Russia’s Baltic port of Ust-Luga as the regional governor on Sunday (March 29, 2026) reported new damage at the major exporting hub hit for a second time in days.

Ukraine has intensified retaliatory attacks on Russian infrastructure — including refineries, oil depots and ports — saying they are justified as part of the effort to cut revenues funding Russia’s offensive.

“There is damage to the port of Ust-Luga. There were no casualties,” Russian regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said on social media.

He said that rescuers were working to extinguish a fire at the port, a key hub for Russian fertilisers, oil and coal exports.

Thirty six drones were destroyed overnight in the region, Mr. Drozdenko added.

‘High price’

Ukraine’s SBU security service later Sunday (March 29, 2026) claimed the attack saying its drones “successfully struck” the Ust-Luga oil terminal.

“The SBU, together with the Defence Forces, continues systematic work to reduce the enemy’s financial and logistical capabilities,” acting head of the SBU, Yevgeny Khmara, said in a statement.

“Russia will pay a high price for its aggression,” Mr. Khmara said, vowing that such attacks “will continue”.

The northwestern port suffered damage this week when it was targeted by drones in a previous attack claimed by Ukraine’s military.

“Over the past week the SBU has already successfully struck the enemy’s oil infrastructure in the Baltic Sea four times,” the security service said.

Ukraine on Monday (March 23, 2026) claimed an attack on another major Russian Baltic port, Primorsk. The black smoke from the fire could be seen on satellite images.

A Ukrainian drone also killed a man in Russia’s Belgorod region, its governor said on Sunday (March 29, 2026).

The civilian was killed after two drone strikes hit the border city of Grayvoron, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram, blaming the Ukrainian military.

Belgorod, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, has frequently been hit with drone attacks, with Russian officials reporting multiple civilian injuries and damage to homes and vehicles across the region in recent weeks.

Russia meanwhile fired 442 drones and one missile in its latest night-time offensive, with 380 UAVs shot down or intercepted, Kyiv’s air force said Sunday (March 29, 2026).

Published – March 29, 2026 09:44 pm IST

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Goods exports dipped 2.6% in September, but a $4 billion upgrade to August tally lifts outlook

admin — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:20:26 +0000

Goods exports dipped 2.6% from last September to hit a three-month low of $34.47 billion. File image for representation.
| Photo Credit: C.V. Subrahmanyam

Even though goods exports declined for the seventh time in eight months in September, India’s weak foreign trade performance so far this year appeared to be turning around as per data released by the Commerce Ministry on Friday, which included revisions worth over $5 billion to August’s trade tally.

While goods exports dipped 2.6% from last September to hit a three-month low of $34.47 billion, imports dropped by a sharper 15% to $53.84 billion, and were 10.4% below August’s updated import bill of $60.1 billion, which marked an 11-month high.

August’s goods exports were ramped up by a record $4 billion to $38.45 billion, the highest in five months and reflecting a 3.88% growth over last August. This was the first uptick after six months of contraction and Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal expressed hope that the second half of 2023-24 will bring sustained growth in goods exports.

Revised figures

The revised goods trade deficit in August stood at $21.65 billion, instead of the 10-month high of $24.2 billion reported earlier, and eased further to $19.37 billion in September. The overall goods deficit in the second quarter of 2023-24 is now $59.4 billion, just 5.6% over the first quarter tally, belying economists’ fears that weaker trade balances originally reported for July and August may exacerbate the country’s current account deficit.

On a year-on-year basis, September’s goods trade deficit was 31% lower and narrowed the tally for the first half of the year to $115.9 billion, 17.7% lower than a year ago. This is because of a steeper 12.2% decline in imports between April and September 2023, in comparison to exports which are now down 8.8%.

Estimates for exports of services in September also indicated a mild 0.5% uptick, compared to a 0.4% decline in August. The final services exports numbers for these two months will be released by the Reserve Bank of India later.

Import bill down

“So far this year, oil exports have declined 17.5%, but non-oil exports have held up better and dropped only 6.3%,” said Bank of Baroda economist Aditi Gupta. However, non-oil and non-gold imports, a proxy for domestic demand, have remained weak and declined by 10% over the last year, she pointed out.

Top Ministry officials, however, stressed that the volumes of inbound shipments remained stable even as the year-on-year decline in prices of commodities, especially petroleum and edible oils, caused the import bill to dip in September. Lower prices also pared the value of petroleum exports, though shipment volumes were 22.1% higher between April and August.