A large explosion rocked an oil depot in the Kavkazsky District of Russia’s Krasnodar region after a Ukrainian drone attack, setting off a fire that spread rapidly, local emergency services reported.
According to The Moscow Times, the blast happened when a burning fuel tank lost pressure, causing flames to reach a second tank and expanding the fire to an area of around 10,000 square meters.
Two firefighters were injured and taken to the hospital with minor burns and smoke inhalation, and three pieces of equipment were also damaged.
Officials say that two fuel tanks, shut-off valves, and oil both inside and outside the tanks are currently burning. In total, 456 people and 181 pieces of equipment are involved in putting out the fire.
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The fire started overnight on March 19, after what Russian authorities claim was a Ukrainian drone strike near the village of Kavkazskaya.
At first, the fire only covered 20 square meters, but quickly grew. Operations at the depot were stopped, and 30 workers on the night shift were safely evacuated. No injuries were reported among them.
The depot is part of the Kavkazskaya station, which plays a key role in transferring oil from rail tankers into the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) system. Each year, up to 6 million tons of oil are pumped through this station. From there, the oil travels to a terminal near Novorossiysk on the Black Sea, where it’s loaded onto ships for export. Major Russian oil companies, including Rosneft, Gazprom Neft, LUKOIL, and Surgutneftegaz, use this route to supply international markets.
This isn’t the first attack linked to Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure.
Back on February 17, seven Ukrainian drones reportedly struck the Kropotkinskaya oil pumping station, also in Krasnodar Krai. That facility helps transport oil through the Tengiz-Novorossiysk pipeline, which carries more than two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s export oil as well as crude from Russian fields near the Caspian Sea.
That attack forced the Kaspiyskaya station offline for a period, causing a drop in the volume of oil being pumped through the CPC system.
