KYIV: Ukraine said Monday its forces had struck an oil terminal overnight on the Crimean peninsula — controlled by Moscow since 2014 — in Kyiv’s latest attack on Russian-controlled energy facilities.
Around 300 people are being evacuated from the Crimean city of Feodosia after a fire at a local oil depot, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing local authorities.
Kyiv has ramped up strikes targeting Russia’s energy sector in recent months aiming to dent revenues used by Moscow to fund its invasion, now grinding through its third year.
“At night, a successful strike was carried out on the enemy’s offshore oil terminal in temporarily occupied Feodosia, Crimea,” the Ukrainian military said in a post on social media.
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea said a fire had broken out at an oil depot in the Black Sea port town of some 70,000 people and that there were no casualties.
The Russian defense ministry meanwhile said that 12 Ukrainian attack drones had been downed over the peninsula overnight, of a total of 21 deployed by Kyiv against Russia.
“The Feodosia terminal is the largest in Crimea in terms of transshipment of oil products, which were used, among other things, to meet the needs of the Russian occupation army,” the Ukrainian military said, vowing to continue such attacks.
Ukraine says the strikes are fair retaliation for Russian attacks on its own energy infrastructure that have plunged millions into darkness.
Separately, Russian forces targeted Kyiv with three missiles, city authorities said, adding that debris from one sparked a fire that was extinguished by emergency services.
