World News | Russian officials: Ukrainian drone strikes Crimea oil depot

KIEV, April 29 (AP) — A Russian-appointed official reported Saturday that a fire broke out at an oil depot in Crimea after it was hit by two Ukrainian drones, part of Russia’s war on the affiliated peninsula. The latest in a series of attacks in preparation for an expected Ukrainian counteroffensive.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-appointed governor of the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, posted videos and photos of the blaze on his Telegram channel.

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Razvozayev said the fire at the city’s port was listed at the highest level in terms of the complexity of fighting it. However, he reported that the open flame had been contained.

Razvozayev said the oil depot was attacked by “two enemy drones” and four fuel tanks were burned. A third drone was shot down over Crimea and another was deactivated by radio-electronic means, according to Crimea’s Moscow-appointed governor Sergey Aksyonov.

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Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move considered illegal by most of the world.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview this week that Ukraine would seek to retake the peninsula in an upcoming counteroffensive.

The incident came a day after Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones into Ukraine, killing at least 23 people.

Nearly all those killed were killed when two missiles hit an apartment building in the central Ukraine city of Uman.

Five children were among the dead, Ukraine’s Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Saturday, adding that 22 of the 23 bodies had been identified. One woman is still missing, Klymenko said.

Russian forces launched more drones into Ukraine overnight. Two Iranian-made self-destructing Shahd drones were intercepted on Saturday morning and a surveillance drone was shot down, the Ukrainian air force command said.

Razvozayev said the fire at the oil depot caused no casualties and would not hinder fuel supplies to Sevastopol. The city has been regularly attacked by drones, especially in recent weeks.

Earlier this week, Razvozhayev reported that the Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian maritime drone that was trying to attack the port, and that another plane exploded, shattering windows in several apartment buildings but causing no other damage.

Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told RBC Ukraine news website Saturday that the oil depot fire was “God’s punishment” for the killing of civilians in Uman, including five children.

He said more than a dozen storage tanks containing petroleum products from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet were destroyed in Sevastopol, but did not acknowledge Ukraine’s responsibility for the drone attack. The difference between the number of tanks supplied by Yusov and Razvozayev could not be reconciled immediately.

Kiev also has not publicly claimed responsibility following previous attacks on Crimea, but has stressed the country’s right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)