A Ukrainian suicide strike has triggered a massive fire at a fuel storage facility in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol.
The Governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, has stated that the Fire at the Oil Terminal is now a “Level 4 Emergency” which is considered the Highest Level with 18 Fire Brigades on Site alongside at least 60 Firefighters; it has been reported so far that No Injures have occurred.
Razvozhayev said the oil depot was attacked by “two enemy drones,” and four oil tanks burned down. A third drone was shot down from the sky over Crimea, and one more was deactivated through radio-electronic means, according to Crimea’s governor, Sergei Aksyonov.
There is no threat to civilian infrastructure,” the governor later added from the scene, confirming there were no casualties or injuries.
The authorities urged people to remain calm as at least 60 firefighters, 18 engines, and a fire train worked to tackle the blaze. It is believed that Mugin-5 UAVs were used to attack the fuel facility.
Earlier, the Russian military attacked a Ukrainian military facility used to repair, modify, and test the Tu-141 Strizh drones in the Kharkiv region. The attack comes months after Ukrainian troops allegedly used the drones to attack Russian air bases, which led to the loss of a Tu-95 strategic bomber.
The development comes as intense combat rages in the eastern region of Ukraine, including Kharkiv. According to reports, several provinces in the region, including Kharkiv, Odesa, and Zaporizhzhia, were hit by a massive barrage of missiles in the last couple of days.
The most intriguing and notable attack was against the Kharkiv Strizh repair plant because Ukraine has extensively deployed the Tu-141 Strizh to launch attacks on high-value targets inside Russia’s strategic depth.
In December last year, the Russian military was caught off-guard when a modified Soviet-era drone, the Tu-141 Strizh,
attacked its air force bases several hundred kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Although Kyiv did not take responsibility for it, the Russian MoD claimed it was certainly a Ukrainian attack.
On the morning of December 5, 2022, Ukraine attacked two air bases in Russia using Soviet-made UAVs – Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region and Engels in the Saratov region. It was interpreted as an effort to disable Russia’s long-range bombers — the Tu-95 and the Tu-160.
The satellite imagery of the Engels Air Base obtained in the aftermath of the attack revealed that a Tu-95 bomber of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) was badly damaged. As previously
reported by EurAsian Times, the bomber was seen covered in fire-fighting foam used to cool the Fire and coat the fuel to prevent its contact with oxygen.
The loss of Tu-95 from active service was seen as a big blow to the VKS, as it was the first time that the bomber, which is the mainstay of its bomber fleet, was damaged in combat. Even though the aircraft was not fully damaged, it was reportedly sent to the repair hangars.
Ukraine has since employed the long-range drone on many occasions, but none comes close to the damage incurred on the Tu-95 bomber. The Russian attack on the Strizh facility could, thus, be seen as an act of vengeance for the damage done to the TU-95MS bomber of the VKS.
The official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD), Igor Konashenkov,
told the media on April 23, “In the vicinity of the city of Kharkiv, the workshops of an aviation industry enterprise were hit, in which repairs and testing of Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles Strizh were carried out.”