Oil depots, substations reportedly set ablaze in occupied Crimea, Mariupol, western Russia following Ukrainian drone strikes

Editor's note: This is a developing story and is being updated.

Ukraine's military reportedly launched another onslaught of middle strikes on Russian and Russian-occupied regions overnight on June 8, striking multiple oil depots and electrical substations, Russian Telegram media channels reported.

Ukraine has steadily expanded its medium-range strike campaign, regularly hitting Russian military facilities and logistics hubs located between 20 to 300 kilometers (12 to 186 miles) behind the front line, both in occupied Ukrainian territories and inside Russia.

Photos and video posted to social media by local residents purports to show thick black smoke billowing from the area of the Grushevaya Balka oil depot in the Russian city of Novorossiysk. The depot serves as the largest oil storage facility in the Caucasus region, with a reported capacity of 1.2 million tons of fuel.

Another oil depot was reportedly struck near Simferopol in occupied Crimea, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel reported, citing resident accounts. A "moderate" fire was seen oil depot owned by the Crimean gas station conglomerate, ATAN.

In recent weeks, occupied Crimea has experienced fuel shortages that Russian authorities have linked to disruptions in supply chains, while Ukrainian strikes have increasingly targeted fuel infrastructure and transportation routes.

Electrical substation fires were also reported in occupied Mariupol as well as the community of Hvardiiske near Simferopol amid the reported strikes.

The Kyiv Independent cannot immediately verify the reports. Ukraine's military has not yet commented on the reported strikes.

The latest strikes follow various middle strikes throughout the day on June 7, with Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces reporting several strikes on military infrastructure and air defense systems across all of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

Early on June 7, Volodymyr Saldo, the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, also said that a bridge near the village of Chonhar connecting occupied Crimea with Russian-controlled parts of southern Ukraine had been damaged in a Ukrainian drone strike.

Many of these strikes have focused on the so-called land corridor connecting Russia to Crimea through occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson oblasts, a route critical to sustaining Russian military operations in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine has increasingly relied on domestically produced drones to strike targets deep inside Russia, particularly facilities tied to oil refining, logistics, and defense production that drive Russia's war effort.

The latest Ukrainian attacks on Russia come as Putin dismissed on June 5 President Volodymyr Zelensky's open letter calling for the immediate reopening of peace negotiations.