Oil depot fire in Russia’s Rostov region extinguished after more than 2 weeks

A fire that started following a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil depot in Russia’s southern Rostov region over two weeks ago has finally been extinguished, Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday.

“The fire has been extinguished. Emergency crews are still monitoring the site in the event that another fire starts due to strong winds, but the main fire has been extinguished,” a source in the emergency services told TASS.

Ukraine’s military claimed responsibility for the attack on the Kavkaz oil and petroleum storage facility in the town of Proletarsk, saying it supplied fuel to the Russian military.

Tackling the giant blaze, which at one point covered an area of 10,000 square metres, injured at least 49 firefighters and destroyed dozens of the site’s 74 fuel storage tanks.

The Kavkaz depot was one of three Russian oil facilities hit by Ukrainian drone strikes last month, strikes which Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said would help bring a “just end” to the conflict.