Firefighters on Tuesday continued to battle a large blaze at an oil storage site in southern Russia’s Rostov region, officials said, two days after a Ukrainian drone strike on the facility.
The fire broke out early Sunday after Russian air defense systems shot down Ukrainian drones in the town of Proletarsk. Ukraine’s military said that its drones targeted the Kavkaz oil and petroleum storage facility.
A video published by local media on Tuesday showed thick black smoke blanketing the sky over Proletarsk.
The fire has so far engulfed a total area of 10,000 square meters (107,640 square feet), Proletarsk’s district head Valery Gornich told the state-run TASS news agency, adding that 520 firefighters and four aircraft were deployed to contain the blaze.
“There’s too much heat, the fire trucks can’t get any closer,” Gornich said. He told RIA Novosti that at least 20 out of 74 fuel tanks at the depot were still burning as of Tuesday morning.
Proletarsk is located approximately 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border and about 350 kilometers (217 miles) from areas in eastern Ukraine currently held by Kyiv’s forces.
Since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly targeted oil and gas facilities within Russia, describing these strikes as “fair” retaliation for Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
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