Drone debris causes fire at oil depot in Russia's Krasnodar region
Incident Overview and Regional Impact
Details of the Oil Depot Fire
June 16 (Reuters) - Drone debris caused a fire at an oil depot in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, authorities said on Tuesday, as they closed a local road connecting the damaged area to the annexed Crimean peninsula.
There were no casualties following the fire at the oil depot, located in the Poltavskaya area of the region of Krasnodar, the regional authorities said in a Telegram post.
Road Closures and Infrastructure Disruption
Authorities said they closed a local road connecting the area with a regional route leading to the bridge across the Kerch Strait that links Crimea to the Krasnodar region.
Strategic Importance of the Kerch Strait Bridge
Moscow built the bridge, which has become a supply route to the Black Sea peninsula in addition to a few other roads from the nearby Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, after it annexed Crimea in 2014.
Broader Context: Attacks and Fuel Supply Issues
On Monday, Ukraine hit two bridges connecting the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region with Crimea. The peninsula had already been facing a fuel crisis after Kyiv recently intensified attacks on Crimea's supply routes.
In the Krasnodar region itself, a popular summer tourist destination, disruptions to fuel supplies have triggered panic-buying, the regional governor said last week, as Ukraine continues targeting Russian energy assets.
Additional Drone Attacks in Other Regions
In the Yaroslavl region, northeast of Moscow, authorities continued efforts to put out a fire at a fuel depot in the city of Rybinsk after a drone attack on Sunday, the regional governor, Mikhail Yevryaev, said on Telegram late on Monday.
The special services had been deployed to deal with "precipitation containing remnants of combustion products," the post said.
"According to specialists, these residues are ordinary soot and are not hazardous to plants or agriculture," Yevryaev said, adding that special boom barriers had been installed in the nearby Rybinsk Reservoir on the Volga river to prevent contamination.
Russian Defense Response
Overnight, Russia brought down 172 Ukrainian drones, Russian newswires said, citing the defence ministry.
(Reporting by Jekaterīna Golubkova in Tokyo; Editing by Tom Hogue, Lincoln Feast and Kate Mayberry.)
