Russia has put out a massive fire caused by a drone attack at a fuel storage depot in Sevastopol, the main port in the occupied Ukrainian region of Crimea and the home of Moscow's Black Sea Fleet, the region's Kremlin-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on April 29.
Razvozhayev said the storage depot was attacked by two drones, one of which was shot down. Ukraine denied responsibility for the strike, which sent a huge cloud of black smoke into the sky that could be seen kilometers away.
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"According to preliminary information, the fire was caused by a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) strike.... All the necessary special services are working on the spot. The area of the fire is about 1,000 square meters, the fire has been assigned the fourth class class [highest danger]," Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram.
Ukrainian military intelligence claimed that more than 10 oil-product storage terminals were destroyed while Russia said only four were engulfed. Video from the scene shows at least seven on fire.
Razvozhayev said there were no injuries reported and the fire posed no threat to the region's residents so that no evacuation was necessary.
He also said the city's fuel supply would not be hampered by the fire, as the tanks destroyed were used to supply fuel to gas stations. It was not immediately clear whether the Russian armed forces used the fuel as well.
Explosions have been heard almost daily in Crimea and Sevastopol since August. Russian occupation authorities claim the blasts are being caused by air defense firing at "Ukrainian drones."
Moscow said earlier this week that it had "repelled" a drone attack on the port.
A Ukrainian military spokesman said he did not have any information to suggest Kyiv was responsible for the fire in Sevastopol, which came a day after Russia launched a massive wave of strikes on civilian taargets in Ukraine, killing at least 25 civilians.