Ukrainian helicopters attack oil depot in Russia
The incident occurred at Belgorod the administrative headquarters of the region, which lies 35 kilometers (21 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border around 6 a.m. local time.
On Friday morning, a large fire erupted at an oil storage facility in Belgorod, barely two days after a series of explosions at an ammo stockpile took place in the same Russian territory bordering Ukraine.
The incident occurred at the administrative headquarters of the region, which lies 35 kilometers (21 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border, around 6 a.m. local time.
It is worth mentioning that photos and videos of the large fire went viral online.
As firemen battled to put out the fire, residents of three adjoining neighborhoods were ordered to leave, the regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov reported.
Meanwhile, two employees at the facility sustained injuries.
In a statement on Telegram, Gladkov said that “emergency services are on the scene; we’ll know the cause of the events later,” vowing to provide details about the causes of the incident once possible.
Hours later, he divulged that two Ukrainian military helicopters attacked an oil depot in Belgorod.
Earlier this week, multiple explosions rocked an ammo stockpile in the nearby settlement of Krasny Oktyabr, injuring four Russian soldiers. While some Ukrainian media reported the warehouse was hit by a missile, Russian authorities denied the claims, blaming the incident on a "human error". The specific cause of the explosions, however, is uncertain.
Russia had launched a special military operation in Ukraine over NATO's eastward expansion, the Ukrainian shelling of Donbass, and the killing of the people of the Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, in addition to Moscow wanting to "denazify" and demilitarize Ukraine.