Fire erupts at Russian fuel storage amid Ukrainian drone attacks

On Sunday morning, a fire broke out at a fuel storage facility in the Kursk region in the European part of Russia. The Russians claim this resulted from attacks by Ukrainian drones.

Three tanks at the fuel storage facility in the Kursk region caught fire due to a Ukrainian drone attack, reported the governor of the region, Alexei Smirnov, citing Reuters on Sunday morning.

No one was killed or injured. The fire in one of the tanks was quickly extinguished, but the fight against the fire in the remaining part of the facility continues. Smirnov said in a statement published on Telegram thirty-two fire units and 82 firefighters were brought to the scene.

The previous day, on Saturday, the Ukrainian side admitted to conducting drone attacks on the Russian Olenya Air Base in the Murmansk region, located far beyond the Arctic Circle, as well as on an airbase in Engels, located in the Saratov region. Olenya Air Base is approximately 1,118 miles from the Ukrainian border.

Also on Saturday, based on information from Russian sources, Ukrainian media reported drone attacks on the Diagilevo Airport and an oil refinery in the Ryazan region, which lies just under 124 miles southeast of Moscow.

Ukrainian forces and special services regularly conduct complex operations in Russia using drones. The targets of these actions are military, industrial, and technological infrastructure, including those far from Ukraine's borders.

Reports from recent months note particularly increased activity of attacks on Russian oil refineries. According to Reuters' estimates, the production capacities of those facilities in Russia rendered out of operation in the first quarter of 2024 because of drone attacks reached approximately 5.1 million tons of oil (averaging 370,500 barrels per day), about 7 percent of the country's total oil processing capacity.