One of the main Russian fuel plants in Crimea was destroyed early Saturday morning.
The occupying authorities in this Black Sea peninsula, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014, reported that the infrastructure was attacked by Ukrainian drone bombs.
The Zelenski government has not confirmed the information, as is usual when the Army strikes in Crimea.
However, the Department of Military Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of the country, has affirmed in a message on social networks that the explosion is a "punishment from God" - a common formula to point out attacks on the enemy without an identified origin - for the Russian bombardments this Friday that caused 26 deaths, 23 of them in a residential building in the city of Uman, in the province of Cherkasi.
According to the organization's note,
Andriy Yusov, a representative of the State Administration of Ukraine, has reported that the destroyed petroleum products were destined for "the fleet of the aggressor state in the Black Sea", referring to Russian warships in the city's port. .
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-imposed governor of Crimea, said two Ukrainian drones hit the plant, while two others were shot down.
Some 18 groups of firefighters, for a total of 60 troops, as well as the Russian intelligence services, went to the scene of the fire to gather more information about it, according to the message collected by the Russian agency TASS, reports Efe.
Given the proximity of the fire to the waters of the port, the authorities have requested that tugboats of the Black Sea Fleet be used to pump water in the extinguishing tasks, while the firefighters continue to search for a way to block oxygen access to the area. of combustion.
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Drone strikes on Crimea are not unusual, although most fail to destroy their targets because Russian air defenses in the region are extraordinarily high.
But Ukraine is more and more often managing to effectively hit the enemy's resources in the area.
The most relevant Ukrainian operation in Crimea occurred in October, when a truck bomb partially destroyed the Kerch bridge, the only road connecting Crimea with Russian territory.
The headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, stationed in Sevastopol, was also attacked in 2022 by Ukrainian drone bombs that caused minor damage.
The last flight of Ukrainian drone bombs intercepted by Russian defenses, according to Moscow, occurred earlier this week.
Frame from a video released this Saturday in which a firefighter works next to the fuel tank hit by drones in Sebastopol. Associated Press / LaPresse (APN)
Crimea has been a kind of red line for Ukraine's allies, which is why neither the Government nor the Ukrainian Armed Forces ever confirm responsibility for the attacks.
For Russian nationalism, Crimea is an inseparable part of Russia, despite the fact that it officially belongs to Ukraine, as recognized by both the United Nations and the vast majority of countries.
The attacks in Crimea have been considered by kyiv's international allies as a provocation that may mean a worse military escalation.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a confidant of Vladimir Putin, even threatened nuclear war in March if he risked losing control of Crimea.
The White House denied during 2022 the possibility of delivering long-range weapons to kyiv that could be used to attack Russian territory but also in Crimea.
The United States did agree in February to supply the defending Army with long-range precision missiles, the GLSDB, although they have a radius of action of 150 kilometers, still far from reaching Crimean territory.
razed Mariupol
On the other hand, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, has affirmed this Saturday that more than 90% of the city of Mariupol, on the shores of the Azov Sea and taken by Russian forces approximately a year ago, has been destroyed as a result of the war, reports Efe.
“Almost half a million people used to live there.
And now there is practically no house left intact, ”Zelenski declared in a message posted on his social networks along with a video comparing satellite images from 2021 and 2023.
Mariupol.
Almost half a million people once lived there.
And now there are almost no intact houses left.
The 🇷🇺 terrorist state did everything to kill this city.
Over 90% of Mariupol is destroyed.
pic.twitter.com/dgFkAedbC7
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 29, 2023
In these shots, obtained from Google Maps after this service updated its images of Mariupol for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion, entire blocks of buildings can be seen disappearing from mid-March 2022.
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