ALBAWABA - Russian emergency officials say that a Ukrainian drone strike caused a big fire to start at a major oil store in Russia's Krasnodar region early Sunday morning. The store can hold 2,000 cubic meters of stuff and is in the Adler area of Sochi, a vacation city.
Governor of Krasnodar Veniamin Kondratyev stated that more than 120 firefighters were sent to put out the fire. He said that the attack was part of a pattern of Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure, which Kyiv sees as important to Moscow's war operations.
Through Telegram, Russia's Ministry of Defense said that overnight, its air defenses stopped 93 Ukrainian drones, including 60 over the Black Sea and one above Krasnodar. However, the ministry's report only talked about the drones that were shot down and not the ones that were launched.
Russia's airport body (Rosaviatsia) said that because of the attack, planes at Sochi International Airport were temporarily stopped for safety reasons. Operations started up again at 2:00 AM GMT.
Ukraine Says It Will Do Targeted Attacks
Later, Ukraine's Armed Forces revealed that the drone attack was part of a larger plan to target key Russian assets with precise strikes. The attacks were a direct response, according to the General Staff, to recent Russian attacks on Ukrainian towns that killed many people.
Officials from Ukraine said that their forces attacked a number of important locations, such as oil refineries in Ryazan and Novokuibyshevsk, a fuel storage facility in Voronezh, and the Electropribor defense plant in Penza, which is known for making advanced military technologies and secret communications.
Ukraine said in a statement that the strikes were meant to weaken Russia's military and that they were only carried out after each target's strategic value had been confirmed.
This new level of violence is another part of the ongoing cross-border conflict. Kyiv is continuing to strike deep into Russian territory in reaction to the growing number of civilian deaths in Ukraine.
