ALBAWABA - A huge fire broke out in Russian-occupied Crimea after a suspected drone attack hit an oil depot, as fighting intensified on the southern Ukrainian front and shelling deprived Russian border villages of power.
A drone attack on a fuel depot in the city of Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea set off an enormous fire early Saturday, a Russian official said, in the latest assault on a peninsula key to Moscow’s war effort. https://t.co/BulW1xpH1H pic.twitter.com/Krrv3VFpQT
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 29, 2023
The attacks came one day after Kyiv said preparations for a long-awaited counteroffensive were nearly complete, having vowed to expel Russian forces from territory they seized in the east and south following their February 2022 invasion.
On Friday, a Russian strike on a bloc of flats in the central Ukrainian city of Uman killed 23 people, including a baby, The Moscow Times reported.
On Saturday, officials in Crimea in eastern Ukraine, towns under Russian occupation in southern Ukraine and a governor of a border region reported attacks, the Times reported.
RAW: A huge fire broke out at a fuel depot in Sevastopol, the main port in Russian-controlled Crimea. Local authorities say it was the result of a drone attack. pic.twitter.com/E3QMFbHo9d
— DW News (@dwnews) April 30, 2023
"Fears of Ukrainian reprisals more than a year into Moscow's offensive have grown in Russia, where a range of cities have canceled traditional May 9 celebrations to mark Soviet victory over the Nazis at the end of World War II in 1945," the newspaper reported.
Newsweek reported that Ukraine's military shelling reportedly left several Russian villages along the border between the two warring nations without power on Saturday.
After previous attacks on Crimea, Kyiv wouldn’t openly claim responsibility, but emphasized that the country had the right to strike any target in response to Russian aggression. https://t.co/RThpbx1Rso
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) April 30, 2023
The reports originated from the Russian region of Belgorod, which is situated just to the northeast of the embattled eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. Throughout the intense yearlong conflict, Belgorod has frequently been subjected to strikes resulting from nearby military combat.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor of Belgorod, first reported the power outages in a post to his official Telegram account.
The village of Novaya Tavolzhanka came under Ukrainian shelling today," Gladkov wrote. "The power lines are damaged."
In addition, four other villages near Novaya Tavolzhanka were left "without electricity" as a result of the shelling, Gladkov added. Work is currently underway to restore power to the villages.
