A gas depot caught fireplace close to a serious bridge in Crimea, Russia

(Reuters) – A Russian gas depot caught fireplace early on Wednesday close to a key bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea, a Russian official stated, days after Moscow blamed Ukraine for an assault that set an oil depot on fireplace in Sevastopol.

Flames and black smoke billowed above what seemed to be massive tanks adorned with crimson “flammable” warnings in movies posted to Russian social media, although Reuters couldn’t independently confirm experiences of the fires or the movies.

“The fireplace is rated the very best problem,” Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the Krasnodar area throughout the Sea of ​​Azov from Ukraine, stated on messaging app Telegram, including that there have been no casualties.

Kondratyev stated that the fireplace broke out within the village of Volna. The small village is situated close to the Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait, a serious artery for Russian forces, connecting the mainland to Crimea, which was annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.

The incident got here days after a drone assault set a Russian gas storage facility ablaze within the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Saturday, in what Moscow known as a Ukrainian assault.

Ukraine has not claimed duty for the Sevastopol assault, in keeping with its normal observe through the battle, which started in February 2022.

However over the weekend, Kiev’s navy stated undermining Russian logistics shaped a part of preparations for a long-awaited counteroffensive, aided by new shipments of extra highly effective Western weaponry.

Explosions derailed a practice on Monday in Russia’s Bryansk area bordering Ukraine, the second such accident in two days. Russian officers say pro-Ukrainian sabotage teams have launched assaults there because the begin of hostilities.

Russia has additionally stepped up its assaults on Ukraine forward of an anticipated counterattack by the latter, with almost nightly waves of drones and missiles concentrating on Kiev and different areas over the previous week.

Early Wednesday, authorities within the Ukrainian capital stated they’d repulsed Moscow’s nighttime assault as air protection programs destroyed all launched drones.

(Reporting by Lydia Kelly from Melbourne); Enhancing by Muralikumar Anantharaman

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