Russian oil facility set ablaze as Ukraine expands drone warfare

Russia blamed explosives dropped from a Ukrainian drone for a big blaze at an oil facility that Kyiv said would disrupt supplies to Moscow’s military, as three Baltic states announced plans to build a fortified “defence line” on their borders with Russia and its ally Belarus.

“An aeroplane-type drone was brought down ... using radio-electronic means. When the aerial target was destroyed, its munitions were dropped on the territory of the Klintsy oil depot,” said Alexander Bogomaz, governor of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.

He said four storage tanks of oil products were set alight, and some 140 emergency workers using special equipment including a firefighting train were tackling the blaze throughout Friday. Dozens of local residents were evacuated from their homes.

Officials said no one was hurt in the incident, which came a day after sources in Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence agency took responsibility for a drone that was brought down near an oil terminal in Saint Petersburg, Russia’s second city, which is some 1,000km north of Ukraine.

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“Clearly, when we are talking about an oil depot that is involved in supplying the occupation corps with fuels and lubricants and more, then this [fire] complicates logistics for the occupiers... Accordingly, it gives our defenders space and time for manoeuvre,” said GUR spokesman Andriy Yusov.

“The local population [in Russia] is beginning to understand that reality and [Kremlin] propaganda are very different,” he added, without directly confirming GUR’s involvement in the Bryansk incident.

Kyiv’s forces have stepped up drone attacks on Russian military facilities and infrastructure in recent months, including on sites hundreds of kilometres from Ukraine, leading to speculation that some drone attacks may have been launched by Ukrainian operatives or local sympathisers on Russian territory. Sabotage of railway lines used by Russian military cargo trains has also occurred, including in remote parts of Siberia.

Russia said its invasion force took control of the small village of Vesele in Ukraine’s Donetsk region this week, but the front line stretching for some 1,000km through eastern Ukraine has barely moved for more than six months. Kyiv has put more public emphasis on sabotage operations in occupied territory and Russia itself following the failure of last summer’s counteroffensive to make significant headway in southeastern Ukraine.

Moscow’s forces still fire missiles and attack drones almost every night at Ukrainian towns and cities, and claimed to have struck a building in the eastern city of Kharkiv this week and killed more than 60 fighters, including French mercenaries.

Paris rejects the claim, but Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said it would ask France’s National Assembly for an official response on the issue.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania announced plans on Friday to build a fortified “defence line” on their eastern borders to protect against any threats from Russia and Belarus.

“Russia’s war in Ukraine has shown that, in addition to equipment, ammunition and manpower, physical defensive installations on the border are also needed,” said Estonian defence minister Hanno Pevkur.

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