Russian officials have claimed a Ukrainian drone strike caused a massive fire to erupt at an oil depot in Crimea, in the latest in a series of attacks on the annexed peninsula as Russia braces for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, said the oil depot was attacked by “two enemy drones” and four oil tanks had burned down. A third drone was shot down from the sky, and one more was deactivated through radio-electronic means.
He said the fire at the city’s harbour had been assigned the highest ranking in terms of how complicated it would be to extinguish. However, he reported that the blaze had been contained.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world considered illegal. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview this week that his country will be seeking to reclaim the peninsula in the forthcoming counteroffensive.
Mr Razvozhayev said the oil depot fire had not caused any casualties and would not hinder fuel supplies in Sevastopol.
The city has been subject to frequent attempted attacks by drones.
Earlier this week, Mr Razvozhayev claimed a Ukrainian sea drone that was intended to attack the harbour had been destroyed, and that another one had blown up, shattering windows in several apartment buildings.
The attack on the oil depot in Sevastopol comes a day after Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Almost all of the victims died when two missiles slammed into an apartment building in the city of Uman.
Children were among the dead, Ukrainian interior minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday, adding that 22 of the 23 bodies recovered had been identified. Two women remained missing, Mr Klymenko said.
Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, Andriy Yusov, told the RBC Ukraine news site on Saturday that the oil depot fire was “God’s punishment” for “the murdered civilians in Uman, including five children”.
He said that more than 10 tanks containing oil products for Russia’s Black Sea fleet had been destroyed in Sevastopol, but stopped short of claiming responsibility for a Ukrainian drone attack.
The difference between the number of tanks Mr Yusov and Mr Razvozhayev said were destroyed could not immediately be reconciled.
Kyiv has declined to publicly claim responsibility for previous attacks on Crimea, though its officials have emphasised that the country has the right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression.
Meanwhile, Russian forces launched more drones at Ukraine overnight. Ukraine’s Air Force Command said two Iranian-made self-exploding Shahed drones were intercepted, and a reconnaissance drone was shot down on Saturday morning.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Nova Kakhovka, according to Moscow-installed authorities in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson province. “Severe artillery fire” had cut off power in the city, the officials said.
The Ukrainian-controlled part of the province also came under fire on Saturday. Russian shelling close to the village of Bilozerka killed one person and wounded another, according to the Kherson prosecutor’s office.
Additional reporting by agencies.
