Ukrainian drone strike causes blaze at southern Russian fuel depot

A fuel depot in southern Russia’s Rostov region caught fire after being struck by a Ukrainian drone in the early hours of Saturday, Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram.

Golubev said there had been no casualties in the strike, but that it took firefighters over six hours to put out the fire. According to Telegram channel Mash, the depot in the town of Tsimlyansk was used to store both petrol and diesel.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said that its air defence systems had intercepted two drones over the Rostov region overnight, as well as one over both the Belgorod and Kursk regions near the border with Ukraine.

Belgorod Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Saturday morning that at least 34 drones had targeted several villages and towns in the region over the past 24 hours, damaging several buildings and injuring one resident.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted oil refineries and depots in Russia and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine in recent months in an attempt to stem the flow of oil revenue funding the Kremlin’s war machine.

As of March, the Ukrainian army had disabled about one-sixth, or 16%, of Russian motor fuel production. However, despite concerted Ukrainian efforts to cause price hikes and fuel shortages in Russia’s domestic market and to disrupt the supply of fuel to the frontline, Russia is likely to avoid major fuel shortages due to its large refining capacities and the possibility of importing supplies from Belarus to top up its reserves.