(Moscow) A major fire broke out on Saturday at an oil depot in Sevastopol, the home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in annexed Crimea, after a drone attack, local authorities said.
“A fire is in progress at an oil depot in Kazatchia Bay […]. According to initial information, it was caused by a drone attack,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvojayev wrote on Telegram, stressing that “no one was injured.”
Sixty firefighters were dispatched to the scene to fight the fire which rages over an area of around 1,000 m2 and should not be brought under control until evening, he added.
“The situation is under control,” Mr. Razvojayev assured on Telegram, saying that “civilian infrastructure is not threatened”.
Quoted by the state-run Ria Novosti news agency, he later told reporters that a total of four oil tanks were damaged in the attack and “burned out”.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, has repeatedly been the target of aerial and naval drone attacks.
In mid-April, authorities announced the cancellation of May Day and May 9 celebrations (the official date of the end of World War II in Russia) on the peninsula, citing “security concerns”.
The town of Nova Kakhovka, located in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, was deprived of electricity on Saturday after “intense” Ukrainian artillery fire, local authorities installed by Russia said.
“Due to heavy artillery fire today…Nova Kakhovka has been left without electricity,” the military and civil administration installed by Russia in the city, which had a population of 45,000 before November, said in a statement. start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022.
Repair work to restore power will begin as soon as the “cruel” artillery fire ends, the statement said, citing “damage” to the municipal power plant and transmission lines.
Moscow has claimed since September 2022 the annexation of the Kherson region its forces only partially control. The Russian military even suffered a major setback last year in Kherson, being forced to abandon the regional capital of the same name.
At the end of March, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian forces had withdrawn from their positions at Nova Kakhovka, where a hydroelectric dam is located.
This information was later denied by the Ukrainian general staff, which admitted an error.
