A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at another Russian oil terminal overnight, local officials in Russiaâs Krasnodar region said Saturday, in what appeared to be the latest attack on Moscowâs vital oil industry.
Authorities in the city of Novorossiysk said falling drone debris sparked a fire at an oil terminal, injuring two people. Russiaâs Astra news outlet said Ukrainian drones struck the Sheskharis oil terminal and depot, the terminus for Russian state-controlled pipeline company Transneftâs main oil pipelines in the region. Images posted by Astra appeared to show smoke rising above the oil terminal, but they could not be verified.
On Saturday afternoon, Ukraineâs General Staff said its forces had struck the Sheskharis oil terminal overnight.
âThe facility provides shipment of oil and oil products for export and is involved in meeting the needs of the Russian army,â the General Staff wrote on Telegram, adding that Ukrainian forces had also hit a tanker in the Black Sea belonging to Russiaâs so-called âshadow fleet.â
Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology that it has developed domestically to battle Russiaâs 4-year-old invasion. Attacks on Russian oil assets that play a key part in funding the invasion have become almost daily occurrences.
Meanwhile, the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike overnight into Friday on a college dormitory building in Starobilsk, a city in Ukraineâs Russia-occupied Luhansk region, rose to 18, the press service of Russiaâs Ministry of Emergency Situations said. According to the ministry, 60 people were wounded in the attack.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday denounced the attack on the dormitory as a âcrimeâ and ordered the military to submit its proposals for retaliation. He said there were no military or law enforcement facilities near the college.
At a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting on the strike, held at the request of Russia, Ukrainian Ambassador Andrii Melnyk denied his Russian counterpartâs accusations of war crimes, calling them a âpure propaganda showâ and asserting that the May 22 operations âexclusively targeted the Russian war machine.â
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
