Ukraine’s State Security Service announced on Wednesday that it had attacked two Russian state-run. Oil depots in the Smolensk region of western Russia. Reuters quoted a Ukrainian intelligence official as saying the drone attack destroyed more than 26,000 cubic meters. Just under 1 million cubic feet of fuel at a warehouse belonging to Russian energy company Rosneft. Unverified videos posted on social media show massive fires. And thick black smoke coming from what appears to be two oil storage tanks. At one of the facilities west of Moscow, near the border with Belarus and Ukraine.

A-Pillar Was Seen Rising

Vasily Anoskin, the governor of Russia’s Smolensk region. First announced the attack on social media early Wednesday morning, saying. “The region has once again become the target of a Ukrainian drone attack. ” Late Wednesday, he provided an update saying “the fire is localized,” . Indicating there is no longer a risk of the fire spreading to the entire site.

Officials in the Russian regions of Voronezh and Lipetsk, south of Smolensk, also reported drone attacks on industrial areas.

Lipetsk Oblast Governor Igor Artamanov said in a social media post on Wednesday that there were no attacks on residential buildings because “the Ukrainian regime tried to attack infrastructure in industrial areas” in the region. He said he was not injured. Since President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian military has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy, transportation, and food production infrastructure.

In Recent Months

Ukraine has carried out a series of drone attacks inside Russia, primarily targeting the country’s oil infrastructure. A Ukrainian intelligence source speaking to Reuters on Wednesday said that the Ukrainian military “continues to effectively destroy military infrastructure and logistics that fuel Russian forces in Ukraine. “A completely legitimate target,” he was quoted as saying.

Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed to have shot down 50 Ukrainian drones in eight regions, including Moscow. U.S. officials have so far criticized Ukraine’s attack on Russian oil facilities, warning it could disrupt global energy markets and calling for it to focus on Russia’s military infrastructure instead. In an interview with the Washington Post last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy emphasized that Ukraine has the right to use weapons in self-defense if necessary.