A Ukrainian drone attack has ignited a fire at an oil depot in the Russian city of Sochi, according to regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev. The incident occurred early on Sunday, with over 120 firefighters deployed to extinguish the blaze at the facility located in the Krasnodar region on the Black Sea. A fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic meters (approximately 70,000 cubic feet) was reported to be ablaze, as stated by the Russian news agency RIA, citing emergency officials.
In its daily morning report, the Russian defense ministry indicated that its air defense units had destroyed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Krasnodar region and 60 over the waters of the Black Sea. These reports focus solely on the number of drones intercepted, without disclosing how many were launched by Ukraine.
To ensure the safety of air traffic, Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, temporarily suspended flights at Sochi’s airport. The authority announced that flights resumed at 02:00 GMT on Sunday (10 p.m. ET on Saturday).
The drone attack in the Adler district of Sochi represents a continuation of Ukraine’s strikes on Russian infrastructure that it considers vital to Moscow’s military efforts. Notably, a woman was killed in a drone strike in the Adler district late last month. While such attacks on Sochi, which hosted the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, have been infrequent since the onset of the conflict in February 2022, the region remains strategically significant.
The Krasnodar region is also home to the Ilsky refinery, one of the largest in southern Russia, which has frequently been a target of Ukrainian drone operations.
In a related event, the governor of the Voronezh region in southern Russia reported that four individuals were injured in a Ukrainian drone strike that led to multiple fires. Concurrently, Russia conducted a missile attack on Kyiv, as indicated by the military administration of the Ukrainian capital. The Russian defense ministry later announced the destruction of 18 Ukrainian drones over Voronezh, underscoring the ongoing hostilities between the two nations.
