A major blaze erupted at an oil depot in the Crimean city of Sevastopol after being hit by two Ukrainian drones, according to Moscow-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. The fire was contained, but the four oil tanks within the depot were destroyed. Razvozhayev stated that the blaze had been assigned the highest ranking for difficulty in extinguishing. Additionally, a third drone was shot out of the sky, and a fourth was deactivated by radio-electronic means. Crimea was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014, a move that was deemed illegal by most of the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently stated in an interview that his country would attempt to reclaim the peninsula in an upcoming counteroffensive.
The Sevastopol attack comes one day after Russia fired over 20 cruise missiles and two drones at Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Almost all of the casualties occurred when two missiles hit an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Uman. Six children were among the dead. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported that 22 of the 23 bodies recovered have been identified, and two women remain missing.
The Russian military launched additional drones at Ukraine overnight. Ukraine’s Air Force Command intercepted two Iranian-made Shahed drones that were programmed to explode upon impact. Additionally, a reconnaissance drone was shot down on Saturday morning. Razvozhayev reported earlier this week that the Russian military had destroyed a Ukrainian sea drone that attempted to attack the Sevastopol harbor, and another drone exploded, shattering windows in several apartment buildings.
Ukraine’s military intelligence spokesperson, Andriy Yusov, told RBC Ukraine news site that the oil depot fire was “God’s punishment” for “the murdered civilians in Uman, including five children.” Yusov reported that more than ten tanks containing oil products for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were destroyed in Sevastopol, but did not claim responsibility for the drone attack.
Kyiv has not claimed responsibility for previous attacks on Crimea but has emphasized its right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression. Meanwhile, Moscow-appointed authorities in the Russian-occupied part of southern Ukraine’s Kherson province reported that Ukrainian forces shelled the city of Nova Kakhovka, causing severe artillery fire that cut off power. The Ukrainian-controlled part of the province also came under fire, with Russian shelling in the area of the village of Bilozerka killing one person and wounding another, according to the Kherson prosecutor’s office.
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