RUSSIA / UKRAINE: A Ukrainian drone strike early on Saturday morning set a Russian fuel storage facility on fire in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, sending a massive column of black smoke into the sky. The city’s governor initially blamed Ukraine but later claimed the fire was extinguished before a catastrophe.
More than ten oil tankers with a combined capacity of nearly 40,000 tonnes that were destined for the Russian Black Sea Fleet, according to a Ukrainian military intelligence official, were destroyed, according to RBC Ukraine.
The attack occurred as Ukraine prepared to launch a counteroffensive to drive Russian forces out of Crimea. Control over all of its legal territory, including Crimea, is essential for any peace agreement. In 2014, Russian troops invaded the peninsula, and Moscow charged Kyiv with unleashing drones to assault Crimea from the air and sea.
According to governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev, only one drone damaged the oil tanks. He asserted that the adversary planned to sneak up on Sevastopol in the morning and surprise it. Russian firefighters have shown how to control a sizable blaze and avert a disaster.
Ukraine is working on drone technology to reach targets in locations like Sevastopol. Officials occasionally use euphemisms to celebrate explosions but rarely take responsibility for them.
Andriy Yusov, a military official from Ukraine, denied responsibility for the attack, instead claiming it was “God’s punishment” for Russia’s attack on Uman, which left 23 people dead.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has promised to ensure that those responsible for the attack on Uman are brought to justice as quickly as possible. Yusov urged everyone living in temporarily occupied Crimea to avoid being close to military installations and facilities that serve the aggressor’s army.
Zelenskiy declared that all terrorists and murderers must be punished. He did not mention the ongoing battle for Bakhmut city in eastern Ukraine, which has been the target of Russian attacks.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the group’s founder, claimed that his men had advanced between 100 and 150 metres on Saturday and that pro-Kyiv forces now only held three square kilometres of territory.
Prigozhin accused Moscow of not providing enough ammunition to his troops, and Wagner’s military accomplishments have been the subject of overly optimistic claims from Prigozhin.
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