A Russian oil pumping station Krasnodar Krai is still on fire after reportedly being struck by Ukrainian drones on March 19, with further explosions reported overnight.
"During the extinguishing process, due to depressurisation of the burning tank, there was an explosion of oil products and release of burning oil," regional officials said in a post on Telegram on March 21.
Ukrainian drones attacked the Kavkazskaya oil pumping station, damaging infrastructure and causing a fire, pro-Kremlin news outlet Shot and regional authorities previously claimed.
The attack reportedly damaged a pipeline connecting storage tanks, initially sparking a fire that covered an area of about 20 square meters.
The fire now covers an area of 10,000 square meters and two firefighters have been injured while tackling the blaze.
The regional operational headquarters said on March 19 that 30 on-duty personnel were evacuated and that the facility had suspended operations.
The Kavkazskaya oil transshipment point is crucial in Russia's energy exports, connecting a railroad oil terminal and the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station. It is part of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium system, which pumps up to 6 million metric tons of oil annually.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. The Ukrainian military has not commented on the reported attacks.Russia has attempted to use the attack as evidence that Ukraine has already broken a partial ceasefire of attacks on energy infrastructure agreed upon by Russian President Vladimit Putin in a call with U.S. President Donald Trump on March 18.
"We believe that the Kyiv regime has already broken the ceasefire proposed by the U.S. president," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on March 20, in comments reported by Reuters.
"Now the question is — you will forgive me — how is Washington going to handle this terrorist scum gone mad? How are they going to put them in their place and get them on to something like the right track?" she added.
Despite Zakharova's comments, Russia has not relented in its attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine, and continues to launch hundreds of kamikaze drones at cities across the country each night.
The strike on the Kavkazskaya oil pumping station follows Ukraine's Feb. 17 drone attack on the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station, also in Krasnodar Krai, where seven drones reportedly hit key infrastructure.
Kyiv has intensified its campaign against Russia's energy and military infrastructure to disrupt Moscow's war effort. On March 17, Ukrainian drones struck a fuel and energy facility in Russia's Astrakhan Oblast, igniting a fire, regional Governor Igor Babushkin claimed.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
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