Russia blames Ukraine drone attack for major Crimea fuel depot fire

A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Saturday (29 April), sending a vast column of black smoke into the sky in the latest attack on the Russia-occupied peninsula.

The city’s Moscow-installed governor blamed Ukraine and later said the fire had been put out before a disaster occurred.

A Ukrainian military intelligence official said more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of about 40,000 tonnes intended for use by Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were destroyed, RBC Ukraine reported.

The strike came as Ukraine prepares for a long-promised counter offensive to push Russian forces back from territory they seized since invading in February 2022.

Ukraine says control of all its legal territory, including Crimea, is a key condition for any peace deal. Russian forces occupied the peninsula in 2014.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of sending waves of aerial and seaborne drones to attack Crimea.

Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said only one drone hit the oil tanks.

“The enemy … wanted to take Sevastopol by surprise, as usual, by staging a sneak attack in the morning,” Razvozhaev wrote on the Telegram app. Russian firefighters had shown how to defeat a major blaze “and prevent a catastrophe”, he added.

Ukraine lacks longer-range missiles that can reach targets in places such as Sevastopol, but has been developing drones to overcome this hurdle.

Ukrainian officials do not usually claim responsibility for explosions at military sites in Crimea, although they sometimes celebrate them using euphemistic language.

Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military official, did not say Ukraine carried out the attack. Instead, he told RBC the blast was “God’s punishment” for a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday that killed 23 people.

“This punishment will be long-lasting. In the near future, it is better for all residents of temporarily occupied Crimea not to be near military facilities and facilities that provide for the aggressor’s army,” RBC quoted Yusov as saying.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv would do all it could to ensure that those responsible for the attack on Uman be held accountable as soon as possible.

“You are all terrorists and murderers and you must all be punished,” he said in an evening video address.

Zelenskyy did not refer directly to the months-long fighting for the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, focus of repeated Russian assaults that have slowly closed in on the centre.

The attacks are largely led by the Wagner private army. Its founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin, said his forces had advanced between 100 and 150 metres on Saturday and claimed pro-Kyiv units now only controlled three sq km.

Prigozhin, speaking in a voice message posted to Telegram, repeated his complaints that Moscow was not sending his men enough ammunition. Prigozhin has made over-optimistic statements about Wagner’s military successes in the past and Reuters was not able to immediately verify his latest claim.

Air defense repels missile attacks

Air defence systems were repelling missile attacks in the early hours on Monday in the Kyiv region, local authorities said, after air raid alerts were issued throughout all of Ukraine by emergency services.

“Air defences are at work!” Kyiv’s regional administration wrote on the Telegram messaging app, after reports of explosions heard in the region.

“Keep calm! Stay in shelters until the air alarm goes off!”

Ukrainian media also reported blasts in the Dnipropetrovsk and Sumy regions.

In the meantime four civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village just over the border in Russia’s Bryansk region on Saturday evening, a local governor said.

“Four civilians have been killed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, Bogomaz said.

Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.

Russia blames Ukraine for Bryansk shelling

Four civilians died as a result of Ukrainian shelling on a village just over the border in Russia’s Bryansk region on Saturday evening, a local governor said.

“Four civilians have been killed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, Bogomaz said.

Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.

Bogomaz blamed the incident on “Ukrainian nationalists”. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 14-month-old Russian invasion on Ukraine.

“Work is continuing at the site of the incident to remove rubble and clear the area,” Bogomaz said. “A state of emergency has been introduced in the village.”

Russia’s Bryansk region borders Ukraine. The village of Suzemka, where the incident occurred, is around 10 kms from the border.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

More on the same topic…