Overnight fire reported at petroleum depot in Russia’s Tuapse

A fire broke out at a petroleum storage depot in Russia’s Tuapse, with photos being posted by local Telegram channels.

The depot in question is owned by Rosneft, Baza says, it was attacked with UAVs. “Preliminary data says two drones rigged with explosives damaged a boiler building near the petroleum depot in Tuapse, leaving two 1.5m deep craters,” the Telegram channel says, noting that the attack occurred at 2:00 a.m. local time.

The explosion smashed the windows of the neighbouring residential buildings. The local town hall says that a maintenance building caught fire. The fire was completely put out by firefighters by 3 a.m. local time. It is claimed that the fire did not damage the petroleum tanks or injure any people.

The ASTRA Telegram channel also reports that a barracks for Russian servicemen was located 30 metres away from the incident location. There have been no official statements on this matter.

RIA Novosti cites emergency services and says that a UAV was indeed spotted in the area where the incident happened.

Russia’s air defence system took down a Ukrainian drone over the Engels military airfield in the Saratov region last night, the country’s Defence Ministry claimed on 26 December. Three Russian servicemen suffered lethal wounds, as per official data, but no aircraft were damaged.