Local Russian authorities reported Saturday that a Ukrainian drone strike ignited a blaze at an oil facility in the Krasnodar region during overnight hours, marking another assault on Russia’s crucial petroleum infrastructure.
Officials from Novorossiysk reported that debris from the downed drone caused the fire at the oil terminal, resulting in injuries to two individuals. The authorities did not identify which specific facility was targeted.
According to Russia’s Astra news outlet, the attack hit the Sheskharis oil terminal and depot, which serves as the endpoint for the state-controlled pipeline company Transneft’s primary oil transportation lines in the area. Astra published images that seemed to display smoke billowing from the terminal, though the photos’ authenticity could not be confirmed. Ukrainian officials have not yet issued a statement regarding the incident.
Ukrainian forces have broadened their capacity for medium and long-distance strikes, utilizing drone and missile systems developed within the country to combat Russia’s 4-year-old invasion. Strikes against Russian petroleum facilities that provide crucial funding for the invasion have become nearly routine events.
In related developments, Moscow-appointed officials announced that the fatality count from a Ukrainian drone attack on a college dormitory in Starobilsk, located in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region of Ukraine, has climbed to 11 following the overnight strike into Friday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the dormitory attack on Friday as a “crime” and directed military leaders to present options for response. He stated that no military or law enforcement installations were located near the educational facility.
During an emergency U.N. Security Council session requested by Russia to address the strike, Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk Andrii rejected his Russian colleague’s war crimes allegations, characterizing them as a “pure propaganda show” and maintaining that the May 22 operations “exclusively targeted the Russian war machine.”
