A Russian fuel depot near a key bridge linking with Crimea was on fire on Wednesday amid reports it was hit by a falling drone.
Videos posted on Russian social media on Wednesday showed flames and huge quantities of black smoke billowing from what appeared to be large tanks emblazoned with “flammable” warnings. News agency Reuters has not yet been able to independently verify the fire reports or videos.
🔥 An oil depot in Taman, located just behind the Kerch Bridge, is on fire as a result of a UAV strike. pic.twitter.com/rAjjYhvlGG
— Maria Drutska 🇺🇦 (@maria_drutska) May 3, 2023
“The fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region, said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that there were no casualties.
The blaze broke out as a result of a drone falling on the facility, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported later on Wednesday morning, citing emergency services.
The fuel depot is located in the village of Volna. The hamlet is close to the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, a major artery for Russian forces, as it links the mainland to the Crimean peninsula that was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The incident came days after a drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday, in what Moscow called a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the Sevastopol attack, in line with what has been its standard practice since the conflict began last February.
Over the weekend, however, Kyiv’s military said undermining Russia’s logistics formed part of preparations for a long-expected counteroffensive, aided by fresh deliveries of more powerful Western weapons.
Blasts derailed a train on Monday in Russia’s region of Bryansk bordering Ukraine - the second such incident in two days. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have made attacks there since the start of hostilities.
Russia has also stepped up attacks on Ukraine ahead of a counteroffensive expected by the latter, with nearly nightly waves of drones and missiles targeting Kyiv and other areas over the past week.
Early on Wednesday, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said they parried Moscow’s overnight attack as air defence systems destroyed all the drones launched.
