A drone attack on Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, has set fire to an oil reservoir, wrote city governor Mikhail Razvozhaev on his Telegram channel early Saturday.
The fire has been contained and will likely be extinguished by Saturday evening, writes Razvozhaev. Only four fuel tanks have been damaged. He added that the reservoirs had been attacked by two drones.
Razvozhaev assured that nobody was harmed and that “all necessary services” were working to extinguish the blaze, adding that it had engulfed an area of around 1,000 square metres.
The column of smoke is visible from several miles away. Videos published by locals show a blackened sky above the area.
Photo: Chp Sevastopol Telegram channel
Russian sanitary control authority Rospotrebnadzor has begun measuring the levels of harmful chemicals in the air around the affected area. TASS writes that K9 units are checking the area for explosives.
Razvozhaev promised the fire would not impact the city’s fuel supply, saying that the damaged reserves catered to petrol stations.
Russian senator Olga Kovitidi demanded retaliation for the incident, calling for the destruction of fuel reservoirs in the Ukrainian city of Odesa.
Ukraine has not yet commented on the incident.
A day earlier, a Russian missile hit a residential building in the Ukrainian town of Uman, killing 23 people.
