Drone Attack Causes Fire at Russian Oil Refinery in Novorossiysk

Russia and Ukraine

The Tass news agency reported early Thursday that a drone attack caused a fire in parts of an oil products tank at an oil refinery in southern Russia, but emergency services said they put out the fire two hours after it started.

TASS said the accident occurred at the Elsky refinery near the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region.

Yesterday, the fire broke out at a fuel depot further west, near a bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea.

“Another difficult night for our emergency services,” Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the Krasnodar region, wrote on Telegram, adding that oil product tanks at the Elsky refinery caught fire. He added that there were no injuries or deaths, according to preliminary reports, and he did not say how the fire started.

Ukraine rarely claims responsibility for what Moscow says are repeated drone attacks on infrastructure and military targets, especially in regions close to Russia.

Moscow accuses Kiev of being responsible for an attack on April 29 that set fire to an oil depot in Sevastopol.

The incident comes a day after marches targeted the Kremlin building, in which Moscow pointed the finger at Kiev, accusing it of attempting to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the latter denied.

It is noteworthy that a huge fire broke out in an oil tank in the Crimea, after it was hit by a drone, according to an official appointed by Russia there last Saturday.

broad attack

Last June, the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region bordering Ukraine suspended operations after two drones attacked its facilities.

It is noteworthy that these developments come at a time when Ukraine announced that its preparations to launch a large-scale attack to restore the lands occupied by Russia in the east and south of the country are nearing an end, she said.

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