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Wed, Dec 11, 2024 | Jumada al-Aakhirah 10, 1446 | DXB
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Ukraine strikes Russian port and claims oil depot hit
Kyiv says it hit Russian energy facilities in retaliation for attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure
- By
- Reuters
Flames and smoke rise from an oil depot in Bryansk, Bryansk Region, Russia, on Wednesday. Reuters
Ukraine struck a southern Russian port on the Azov Sea with missiles and triggered a fire at an oil depot in the western Bryansk region with drones, officials and various media and sources said.
The extent of damage and weapons used in the port attack were unclear, though Russia has repeatedly cautioned that Ukraine's use of US ATACMS missiles over the border represents direct Western involvement and risks triggering a wider war.
Kyiv says it hit Russian energy facilities in retaliation for attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which have knocked out about half of Ukraine's available generating capacity during the war, damaged distribution and brought blackouts.
Russia's defence ministry said air defence units destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones overnight over Bryansk that borders Ukraine.
Regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Telegram that an unspecified production facility briefly caught fire.
Ukraine's military said it caused a massive fire at an oil depot, while Russian independent media ASTRA reported that a refinery had been hit and showed flames leaping into the sky.
The Soviet-built Druzhba pipeline, which pumps oil from the Western Siberia and Caspian Sea to Europe, runs through Bryansk, as does the Baltic Pipeline System (BPS) which goes to the Baltic Sea.
Kazakhstan pipeline operator Kaztransoil said the Druzhba pipeline was undamaged. Citing Russian authorities, it said an industrial facility caught fire and there were no threats to oil supplies originating in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan plans to ship 130,000 metric tonnes (31,000 barrels per day) of oil to Germany in December via Druzhba in addition to 1.358 million tons sent earlier this year.
A Ukrainian industry source said that the overnight attack on a Bryansk depot did not affect oil transit to Europe via Ukraine.
About 750 km south, Ukrainian missiles hit Taganrog port, damaging an industrial facility and 14 cars, the acting governor of Rostov region Yuri Slyusar said.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.
Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow's forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of the conflict and the West ponders how the war will end.
Ukraine used US ATACMS missiles in November to strike into Russia, taking advantage of new permission from outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden.
Days later, Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro. Since then, Russia reported it had shot down at least 15 ATACMS missiles.
The damaged area of Taganrog, a city of about a quarter of a million people on Russia's Black Sea coast not far from the border with Ukraine, has been cordoned off by police, Svetlana Kambulova, the head of the city, said on Telegram.
The attack partially damaged a boiler building, cutting off heat to 27 apartment buildings, Kambulova said.
Russia has an air base near the city, from which military analysts say Russia's air force operates drones, bombers and other weapons to attack Ukraine.
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