A drone attack caused a huge fire on Saturday in an oil depot in Crimea annexed by Moscow and occupied cities were bombarded, the day after Kiev announced that its preparations for a spring offensive were almost complete.
The fire broke out at an oil depot in Sevastopol, the home port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, local authorities said.
This alleged attack took place when the day before Ukraine said it was ready to launch its spring offensive against Russian forces in order to drive them out of the territories they control.
"A fire is in progress in an oil depot in the bay of Kazatchia (...). According to initial information, it was caused by a drone attack", wrote on Telegram the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvojayev, emphasizing that "no one was injured".
Sixty firefighters were dispatched to the scene to fight the fire which rages over an area of around 1,000 m2 and should not be brought under control until evening, he added.
"The situation is under control", assured Mr. Razvojayev, affirming that "civilian infrastructures are not threatened".
Quoted by the state-run Ria Novosti news agency, he then told reporters that a total of four oil tanks had been damaged and "burned out".
The Kremlin did not comment on this attack.
Since the start of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea, a peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, has repeatedly been the target of aerial and naval drone attacks. The most important took place in October 2022.
In mid-April, the authorities announced the cancellation of the celebrations of May 1 and 9 (the official date of the end of the Second World War in Russia) on the peninsula, citing "security problems".
The drone attack came less than 24 hours after Russian cruise missile strikes hit apartment buildings including Uman, a city in central Ukraine, where at least 23 people were killed.
A total of at least 26 people were killed Friday in several Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities.
On Saturday, Ukrainian authorities said five children were among the dead.
Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the drone attack in Sevastopol, but military intelligence has suggested it was in retaliation after strikes in Uman.
Andriy Yousov, of the intelligence services of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, assured that it was "a punishment from God, especially for the civilians killed in Uman".
He advised residents of Crimea "in the near future to avoid being near military installations and facilities supplying the army of the aggressor."
The governor of Sevastopol for his part called on the inhabitants of the peninsula "to remain calm".
On Friday, Ukraine said preparations for a spring offensive were nearing completion.
"Preparations are coming to an end," Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said of the major attack that his country wants to launch to reconquer the territories occupied in the east and south by Russia.
In the south, Russian occupation authorities in the part of the Kherson region controlled by Russian forces said the town of Novaya Kakhovka came under "intense artillery fire" on Saturday.
According to Moscow-backed authorities, the power was out in this city which fell to Russian forces on the first day of the invasion on February 24, 2022.
Russian forces called on residents of the city to "stay calm" and announced that work to restore power would begin "after the end of the shelling".
The day before, Ukraine reported that the Russians had shelled the Kherson region and killed a 57-year-old woman in the village of Bilozerka.
29/04/2023 17:32:10 - Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) © 2023 AFP
