Moscow, May 5, (dpa/GNA) – A large fire has erupted at a fuel storage facility in southern Russia, not far the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, following a drone attack, the Russian state news agency TASS reported early Thursday citing emergency responders.
The attack took place at the Ilski oil refinery in the town of the same name and caused a fire at its reservoir, the report said.
A similar incident occurred a day earlier in the Russian village of Volna, near Crimea.
A fuel depot caught fire in Volna and consumed an area of 1,200 square metres. There, too, Russian officials blamed a drone attack as the cause. On the outskirts of Volna is a large terminal for oil and oil products, which are then shipped across the Black Sea.
Attacks on infrastructure objects in the south of Russia have become more frequent in recent days.
At the weekend, a fuel reservoir in Russian-annexed Crimea was blown up by a drone attack. And in the western Russian region of Bryansk this week, two trains derailed after explosions also blamed on drones.
The attacks have been perceived as potential preparation for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive aimed at liberating territory under Russian occupation.
Later on Thursday evening, an air alert was activated in Kiev and its surrounding area due to an an unidentified flying object, said authorities.
Residents reported hearing explosions and gunfire in the city centre.
The military urged people to remain calm and seek shelter as the air defence was being deployed.
Video footage on social media then showed how a drone was shot down over the centre of Kiev. The all-clear was given after just under an hour.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Moscow’s forces continued their attacks on the heavily contested city of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donetsk region. according to the Ukrainian general staff in their evening summary.
They repelled around 50 Russian attacks near Bakhmut, Limansk and Maryinka, the report said.
“The Russian occupation forces continue to suffer heavy losses on the battlefield, and all medical facilities in the temporarily occupied areas are overflowing with wounded occupation soldiers,” they said. This could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile as analysts continue to review the alleged drone attacks on the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday, a US-based think tank suspects Russia itself may have staged the incident.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) argued in a report released late on Wednesday that Moscow may have staged the strike in order to bring the war closer to the Russia public and create conditions for a broader social mobilization to support the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Wednesday night, two drones that were flying towards the Kremlin compound crashed, according to the Russian Presidential Office. Russia swiftly accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate President Vladimir Putin and threatened to retaliate.
Ukraine has denied any involvement in the incident.
Kremlin spokesman Dmirty Peskov, meanwhile, accused the United States on Thursday of having orchestrated the attack and ordering Ukraine to launch the drones.
“We know that the decision on such actions and terrorist acts is not made in Kiev, but in Washington. And Kiev carries out what they are told,” Peskov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency on Thursday.
He did not provide evidence to back up the claim.
Washington rejected the accusations as “ridiculous.” US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said his government didn’t even know what had happened exactly in the incident, adding: “Mr. Peskov is lying.”
The ISW said that several indications suggested that the attack was actually carried out from within Russia and staged in a targeted manner.
According to the Washington-based think tank, Russian authorities have recently taken steps to bolster defences, including within Moscow, by creating air defence circles around the city.
The group argued that it is therefore extremely unlikely that two drones could have penetrated multiple air defence perimeters only to be detonated or shot down directly over the heart of the Kremlin – in such as way that could be easily captured on camera to provide spectacular images.
The ISW report claimed that the immediate and coordinated Russian response to the incident suggests that the attack was prepared internally in such a way that its intended political impact overshadowed any embarrassment of an alleged Ukrainian drone hitting the Kremlin.
Coming shortly before Victory Day celebrations on May 9 to commemorate the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, the report argued, the attack served to present the war as an existential threat for the local Russian audience.
GNA