May 3 (Reuters) – A fuel depot caught fire on Wednesday near a key bridge linking the Russian mainland to Crimea, a Russian official said, days after Moscow blamed Ukraine for an attack that set fire to an oil depot in Sevastopol.
Flames and black smoke billowed from what appeared to be large tanks with red “Burning” warnings in videos posted on Russian social media, though Reuters could not independently verify any of the fire report or videos.
“The fire is classified as the highest ranking of difficulty,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region across the Sea of Azov from Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that there were no casualties.
Kondratyev said a fire broke out in the village of Volna. The village is near the Crimean bridge over the Kerch Strait, a key artery for Russian forces, as it connects the mainland to the Crimean peninsula that was annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.
The incident came days after a drone strike set fire to a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday, in what Moscow called a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attack on Sevastopol, in line with its usual practice during the conflict, which began in February 2022.
Over the weekend, however, Kyiv’s military said the weakening of Russian logistics was part of preparations for a long-anticipated counteroffensive, aided by new deliveries of more powerful weapons by the West.
Explosions derailed a train on Monday in Russia’s Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, the second such incident in two days. Russian officials say pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups have carried out attacks there since the conflict began.
Russia has also stepped up attacks on Ukraine ahead of a counter-offensive the latter had hoped for, with near-nightly waves of drones and missiles targeting Kyiv and other areas over the past week. .
Early on Wednesday, authorities in the Ukrainian capital said they had thwarted Moscow’s overnight attack as air defense systems destroyed all launched drones.
Lidia Kelly reporting in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman
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