Ukrainian drones spark fuel fire in south Russia

A police expert walks past a burned car at the site of a Russian strike in the city of Sumy on August 17, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

MOSCOW, Russia — Ukrainian drones attacked an oil storage facility in Russia’s southern Rostov region early Sunday morning, sparking a large fuel fire, the local governor said.

Videos published on social media showed thick black smoke and bursts of flames coming from the site of the blaze, which the governor said was in the town of Proletarsk.

“In the southeast of the Rostov region, air defences repelled a drone attack. As a result of falling debris on the territory of industrial storage facilities in Proletarsk, a diesel fuel fire broke out,” Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram.

“At 05:35 (0235 GMT), firefighting at the industrial facility in Proletarsk was suspended due to a second drone attack,” he added in an update to the post.

No one was injured and firefighting efforts resumed shortly after, he said in a later post.

The Ukrainian army said it had attacked the “Kavkaz” oil and petroleum storage facility in the Rostov region.

“It stored oil and petroleum products that were also supplied to the needs of the Russian occupation army … Measures to undermine the military-economic potential of the Russian Federation continue,” it said.Proletarsk is some 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border and some 350 kilometres from Kyiv-held areas of fighting on the eastern Ukrainian frontline.

The Russian defence ministry said it shot down five “aircraft-type” Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over the Rostov region.

Kyiv has repeatedly targeted oil and gas facilities in Russia since the conflict began in 2022, some hundreds of kilometres from its borders, in what it has called “fair” retaliation for attacks on its energy infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised his forces for hitting oil facilities in Russia, saying the attacks would help bring a “just end” to the conflict.

The drone attacks come as Ukraine mounts an unprecedented cross-border assault into Russia’s Kursk region, where it claims to control more than 80 settlements.