Ukraine drone strike sets oil depot on fire as Russian attack in Zaporizhzhia kills at least 13 people

Ukraine has launched an overnight strike deep inside Russia that set fire to an oil depot that serves an air base for Russian nuclear bomber planes, the Ukrainian military says.

Russian regional governor Roman Busargin said the cities of Engels and Saratov, on opposite sides of the Volga river, had been subject to a “mass drone attack” and fire had broken out in Engels at an industrial site, which he did not name.

He later posted on Telegram that the blaze had spread and two firefighters had died trying to put it out.

He declared a state of emergency in Engels, which has a population of about 200,000.

The Ukrainian military reported multiple explosions and a big fire at the Kristal oil depot, which it said provided fuel to the Engels-2 military airfield.

The strike “creates serious logistical problems for the strategic aviation of the Russian occupiers and significantly reduces their ability to strike at peaceful Ukrainian cities and civilian objects,” it said in a statement on Telegram.

Ukraine deployed “long-range capabilities” in the attack, presidential adviser Oleksandr Kamyshin said on X.

He used the hashtag #MadeInUkraine to signal that the weapons used were not supplied by the countries’ allies.

Ukraine’s general staff also said it had carried out a successful strike on a Russian military command post in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Donetsk region on Wednesday.

The facility has been used by Russia to co-ordinate attacks against Ukrainian troops and civilians, it said.

Separately, a Russian attack killed at least 13 people and injured 29 others on Wednesday in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said.

High-rise apartment blocks, an industrial facility and other infrastructure were damaged in the attack, Ukraine’s prosecutor general office said on Telegram.

The debris hit a tram and a bus with passengers inside, it added.

Emergency workers were trying to resuscitate a man while raging flames, smoke and burnt cars could be seen in the background.

Russian troops had used two guided bombs to hit a residential area, the regional governor Ivan Fedorov told reporters.

“There is nothing more cruel than launching aerial bombs on a city, knowing that ordinary civilians will suffer,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on X.

In an escalation of the nearly three-year-old war, Ukraine last year began firing US ATACMS ballistic missiles and UK Storm Shadows into Russia.

Russia responded by launching a new hypersonic missile, the Oreshnik, at Ukraine.

The Kremlin has pledged to retaliate each time Ukraine fires long-range foreign-made weapons into Russia.

Russian news reports also said the fire in Engels was at an oil facility.

Videos and photos published on social media showed a large fire burning, sending thick clouds of smoke into the night sky.

Reuters was able to verify the location in an industrial zone of Engels, based on satellite imagery.

“There are sufficient forces and resources to localise the fire,” Busargin, the regional governor, said on Telegram.

Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement that 11 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed overnight over the Saratov region, and 21 over other parts of Russia and the Azov Sea.

It did not mention any damage.

Some Engels residents posted in a Telegram chat room that they had heard dozens of explosions.

Russian officials acknowledged a major drone attack in the area and said that authorities had set up an emergency command centre to fight the fire.

More than 12,300 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, a United Nations official told a UN meeting on Wednesday, noting a spike in casualties due to the use of drones, long-range missiles and glide bombs.

Russia, which is making territorial gains in Ukraine’s east, has conducted regular attacks on faraway cities in recent months using such weapons.

This contributed to a 30 per cent rise in civilian deaths to 574 in Ukraine between September-November 2024 compared to the previous year, according to UN data.

with AP and DPA