Ukraine’s national security service said on Wednesday it had attacked two Russian state oil deposits in the Smolensk region of western Russia. The Reuters news agency quoted a Ukrainian intelligence official as saying that the drone strike had destroyed more than 26,000 cubic meters (a little less than 1 million cubic feet) of fuel at depots owned by the Russian energy corporation Rosneft.
Unverified videos posted on social media showed huge fires and columns of thick black smoke rising from what appeared to be two oil storage tanks at one of the facilities, which are located west of Moscow near the country’s borders with Belarus and Ukraine.
The governor of the Russian Smolensk region, Vasily Anothkin, was the first to Announced attack early Wednesday morning on social media, saying their “region was again targeted by Ukrainian drone strikes.”
Anothkin said no one was injured in the attack, but “a fire did occur in civilian infrastructure.”
Reuters
He offered an update later Wednesday to say that “the fire has been located,” indicating there was no longer a threat of the fire spreading beyond the facility.
Officials in the Russian regions of Voronezh and Lipetsk, south of Smolensk, also reported drone attacks on industrial zones.
Lipetsk Governor Igor Artamanov saying in a social media post Wednesday that no residential buildings were attacked when the “Ukrainian regime attempted to attack infrastructure in the industrial zone” of its region. He said there were no casualties.
Since President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian forces have systematically attacked Ukraine’s energy, transportation and food production infrastructure.
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In recent months, Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a series of drone attacks inside Russia, mostly targeting the country’s oil infrastructure.
The Ukrainian intelligence source who spoke to Reuters on Wednesday was quoted as saying that the Ukrainian military “continues to effectively destroy the military infrastructure and logistics that provide fuel to the Russian army in Ukraine… These facilities are and will remain our absolutely legitimate targets.” “.
Last week, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have shot down 50 Ukrainian drones in eight regions, including Moscow.
US officials have previously He criticized Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s oil facilities, warning that they could disrupt global energy markets and encouraging the country to focus on attacking Russian military infrastructure.
in it interview In an interview with the Washington Post last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine has the right to use its weapons in self-defense in any way it sees fit.