Russia accuses Ukraine of burning down an oil depot in Crimea with a drone strike

Kyiv, Ukraine – oil depot in Crimea It caught fire after being hit by two drones Ukrainianssaid a local official appointed by RussiaIn the latest in a series of attacks on the Moscow-annexed peninsula as the Kremlin prepares for an expected counterattack from Kiev.

Mikhail RazvojevSevastopol, the governor of the Black Sea port city of Sevastopol, posted videos and photos of the fire on his Telegram channel.

The fire registered in the city’s port was considered to be very dangerous due to the complexity of its extinctionRazovugayev added, noting that the fire was contained in the open air.

Advertising

Keep watching more content

The official stated that the warehouse was attacked by “two hostile drones” and that four fuel tanks were burned. A third drone was shot down in the air over Crimea and another was disabled by radio electronic means, according to the Kremlin-appointed regional governor. Sergey Aksionov.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, a move most of the international community considered illegal. president of ukraine, Volodymyr ZelenskyHe confirmed in an interview this week that his country will try to retake the peninsula in its next counterattack.

The incident came a day after Russia launched more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones into Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Most of the victims were killed when two shells hit a residential building in the central city of Uman.

The Ukrainian Interior Minister said that among the dead in the Russian attack were five minors. Ihor KlimenkoSaturday, adding that 22 of the 23 bodies have been identified and a woman is still missing.

Russian forces launched more drones over Ukraine overnight. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that two Iranian-made aircraft packed with explosives were intercepted and another reconnaissance drone was shot down on Saturday morning.

According to Razvogaev, the fire that broke out in the crude oil depot did not result in casualties and would not impede the fuel supply in Sevastopol. The city has been the target of regular drone attack attempts, especially in recent weeks.

Earlier in the week, Razvogayev reported that the Russian military had destroyed a Ukrainian naval drone that tried to attack the port and that another exploded, shattering the windows of several apartment buildings, but causing no further damage.

Spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence Andrei YusufHe told the RBC Ukraine news website on Saturday that the fire at the warehouse was “God’s punishment” for “civilians killed in Uman, including five children”.

According to Yusov, more than 10 tanks containing oil products for the Russian Black Sea Fleet were destroyed in the Sevastopol incident, but he did not acknowledge Ukraine’s involvement in the attack. The discrepancies in the number of hit tanks given by Yusov and Razvozhayev could not immediately be clarified.

After the previous attacks on Crimea, Kiev did not publicly claim responsibility, but nonetheless asserted that the country had the right to attack any target in response to Russian aggression.