KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive fire broke out in an oil reservoir in Crimea after it was hit by a drone, a Russian-appointed official there reported Saturday.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Moscow-installed governor of the Black Sea peninsula port city of Sevastopol, posted videos and photos of the fire on his Telegram channel.
Razvozhayev said the fire was assigned the highest rank in terms of how complicated it will be to put out.
He did not say whether the drone he cited as the cause of the fire was Ukrainian. Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move considered illegal by most of the world. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his country is trying to reclaim the peninsula during Russia’s current full-scale invasion.
The incident comes a day after Russia fired more than 20 cruise missiles and two drones into Ukraine, killing at least 23 people. Nearly all of the victims died when two rockets slammed into an apartment building. Three children were among the dead.
Razvozhayev said the fire in the oil reservoir has caused no casualties and will not affect fuel supplies in Sevastopol.
In recent weeks in particular, the city has been regularly targeted by drone attacks.
Earlier this week, Razvozhayev reported that the Russian military destroyed a Ukrainian naval drone attempting to attack the harbor and another exploded, shattering the windows of several apartment buildings but causing no other damage.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the oil reservoir fire. After previous attacks on Crimea, Kiev mostly stopped openly claiming responsibility, but insisted that the country had the right to attack any target in response to Russian aggression.
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