Explosion at oil refinery in Russian city of Omsk injures 2

An explosion at a refinery owned by state-run energy giant Gazprom in the Russian city of Omsk on Aug. 26 injured at least two people, the company's press service reported.

Vitaly Khotsenko, acting governor of Omsk Oblast, confirmed that two people had been injured and claimed that the situation was under control.

Khotsenko said the circumstances of the fire were still being investigated.

Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said that 27 first responders and seven pieces of equipment were dispatched to the scene of the explosion.

The state-run media outlet TASS said that the two injured were being treated on the scene. At the same time, the Baza Telegram channel claimed that both were in serious condition.

At the time of this publication, there was no indication of outside involvement in the explosion.

Omsk is located in central Siberia, north of the Kazakh border. The city of more than 1 million people is some 3,000 kilometers (~1,860 miles) east of Ukraine.

Over the last year, Ukraine has escalated attacks against Russia's oil industry, successfully reducing the processing capacities of multiple facilities.

Explosion at petrochemical plant in Russia’s Bashkortostan injures 3

According to Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry, the explosion was caused by a liquified gas fire, which is still being extinguished. There was no indication of any outside interference at the time of this publication.

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk