A Russian official on Friday accused Ukraine of carrying out a helicopter attack on an “oil depot” in the western Russian city of Belgorod, about 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
“A fire in an oil depot occurred because of an airstrike by two Ukrainian army helicopters that entered Russian territory at low altitude,” the region’s governor said on his Telegram account. of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
In a separate message, he said firefighters were on the job to extinguish the blaze and two depot workers were injured. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations says that 170 rescuers are involved.
The public company Rosneft, owner of the premises, told Russian news agencies that it had evacuated its staff there.
On Wednesday, explosions took place in an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region, without the Russian authorities clearly explaining the cause of the incident.
Belgorod is located about 80 kilometers north of Kharkiv, a major Ukrainian city that has been attacked by Russian forces since the start of the Kremlin offensive.