A Ukrainian drone has hit an oil storage depot in western Russia, sparking a blaze, officials said, as Kyiv’s forces apparently extended their attacks on Russian soil ahead of the war’s two-year anniversary.
Four oil reservoirs with a total capacity of 6,000 cubic metres (1.6 million gallons) were set on fire after the drone reached Klintsy, a city of some 70,000 people about 40 miles from the Ukrainian border, according to the local governor and state news agency Tass.
The strike is apparently the latest in a recently intensified effort by Ukraine to unnerve Russians and undermine President Vladimir Putin’s claims that life in his country is going on as normal before its March 17 presidential election.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed to hit more targets inside Russian border regions this year.
Russia’s air defences are concentrated in occupied regions of Ukraine, Kyiv officials say, leaving more distant targets inside Russia more vulnerable as Ukrainian forces develop longer-range drones.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 19 January 2024.
Find out more about Defence Intelligence's use of language: https://t.co/0npPvd2nrM #StandWithUkraine 🇺🇦 pic.twitter.com/0lR7vlO9RH— Ministry of Defence 🇬🇧 (@DefenceHQ) January 19, 2024
The Russian city of Belgorod, also near the Ukrainian border, cancelled its traditional Orthodox Epiphany festivities on Friday because of the threat of Ukrainian drone strikes.
They are the first major public events known to be called off in Russia due to the drone threat.
Ukrainian national media, quoting an official in Ukraine’s Intelligence Service, said Ukrainian drones on Friday also attacked a gunpowder mill in Tambov, about 370 miles south of Moscow.
But Tambov governor Maxim Yegorov said the plant was working normally, according to Russia’s RBC news outlet.
The Mash news outlet had earlier reported that a Ukrainian drone fell on the plant’s premises on Thursday but caused no damage.
In another strike fitting the pattern, the Russian defence ministry said a Ukrainian drone was downed on the outskirts of St Petersburg on Thursday.
Wreckage fell on the premises of the St Petersburg Oil Terminal on the city’s southern edge, according to Vladimir Rogov, who is in charge of co-ordination of the Russian-annexed regions of Ukraine.
Mikhail Skigin, the terminal co-owner, confirmed the drone was targeting the terminal.
St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, is about 560 miles north of the border with Ukraine.
In Klintsy, air defences electronically jammed the drone but it dropped its explosive payload on the facility, Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said.
There were no casualties, he added.
Russian telegram channels shared videos of what they said was the blaze at the depot, which sent thick black plumes of smoke into the air.
The fire is hard to put out and requires specialist equipment, Mr Bogomaz said, saying 32 people were evacuated from their homes near the depot.
The same depot was hit by a Ukrainian drone last May but the damage was apparently less significant.
Meanwhile, Russian shelling in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region killed a 57-year-old woman and a landmine there killed a man, the Ukrainian president’s office reported on Friday.
