ROSTOV – A Ukrainian drone attack has set an oil depot in Russia’s southern region of Rostov alight, the authorities said.
On Wednesday, regional Governor Vasily Golubev confirmed the overnight strike, saying on the Telegram messaging app that firefighters were extinguishing the blaze at the depot in Rostov’s Kamensky district, with no casualties reported.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense earlier said air defense units destroyed four drones over the region overnight, without mentioning the attack on the oil depot.
Three tanks were burning at the oil depot after two drones fell in the area, according to the Baza Telegram channel, which is close to Russian security services.
Ukraine’s strike marked its latest attack on Russian oil and gas facilities in retaliation for attacks on its energy infrastructure.
A large fire has been raging at an oil storage facility in Rostov’s city of Proletarsk since August 18 after an earlier Ukrainian drone attack some 200km (125 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
At the beginning of the month, another fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district was hit.
At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his forces for striking oil facilities in Russia, saying the attacks would help bring a “just end” to the conflict.
The Russian ministry also said eight attack drones were destroyed over the Voronezh region, which borders Ukraine, but gave no details.
Alexander Gusev, the governor of Voronezh, said debris from a Ukraine-launched drone over the region sparked a fire “near explosive objects”, but that there had been no detonation.
Meanwhile, Russia said on Wednesday that it wanted the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take a “more objective and clearer” stance on nuclear safety.
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the United Nations nuclear watchdog should act “in favour of facts”, state news agency RIA reported, “ensuring safety and preventing the development of a scenario along a catastrophic path to which the Kyiv regime is pushing everyone”.
IAEA chief Rafael Grossi visited the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant on Tuesday outside the town of Kurchatov in the Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces broke across the border three weeks ago.
Ukraine has not responded to Russian accusations that it attacked the plant. Asked by a reporter to condemn drone damage as a “nuclear provocation” by Ukraine, Grossi said “pointing fingers” was something he must take “extremely seriously”.
Grossi concluded the facility – the same model as the Chornobyl plant in Ukraine, which witnessed the world’s worst civilian nuclear disaster in 1986 – was vulnerable to a serious accident because it lacks a protective dome that could shield it from missiles, drones and artillery.
Russia’s National Guard claimed on Wednesday that its forces had defused unexploded United States-supplied munitions fired by Ukraine that were shot down just 5km (3 miles) from the Kursk plant.
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. (Al Jazeera)
Photo: Fire in the oil tanks. (Reuters) …[+]
