(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 is raging over an area of approximately 1000 m2 and should only be brought under control towards evening, he added.
“The situation is under control”, assured on Telegram Mr. Razvojayev, affirming that “civilian infrastructures are not threatened”.
Quoted by the state-run Ria Novosti news agency, he then told reporters that a total of four oil tanks had been 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, the authorities announced the cancellation of the celebrations of the 1er and May 9 (official date of the end of the Second World War in Russia) on the peninsula, citing “security problems”.
Intense artillery fire at Nova Kakhovka
The town of Nova Kakhovka, located in the region of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, was deprived of electricity on Saturday after “intense” Ukrainian artillery fire, local authorities installed by Russia said.
“Due to intense artillery fire today […] Nova Kakhovka remained without electricity,” the military and civil administration installed by Russia in this city, which had 45,000 inhabitants before the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, said in a statement.
Repair work to restore electricity will begin as soon as the “cruel” artillery fire ends, the statement said, citing the “damage” inflicted on 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At the end of March, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense announced that Russian forces had withdrawn from their positions in Nova Kakhovka, where a hydroelectric dam is located.
This information was then denied by the Ukrainian general staff, who admitted an error.