A new drone attack was recorded at a Russian oil refinery

A new fire occurred on Friday in southwestern Russia, near Ukraine, at an oil refinery that was attacked by a drone the day before, local rescue services said, cited by Russian news agencies.

The fire that affected an area of ​​60 m2 occurred at an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region, and was quickly controlled, said the local office of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, cited by the Interfax agency.

“The refinery workers were evacuated. “No one was injured,” she stressed.

According to the official TASS agency, citing a source from the rescue services, the fire was caused by a new drone attack.

The oil refinery had been the target of a drone attack on Thursday, according to local authorities, causing a fire in one of the oil facility’s tanks that was quickly extinguished.

These incidents add to a series of recent drone attacks reported by the Kremlin, including one it called an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

Last Wednesday. Russian authorities accused Ukraine of trying to attack the Kremlin with two drones overnight in an attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin. They later said that the United States was behind the attack. Both kyiv and Washington denied that accusation.

“Tonight the kyiv regime tried to hit the residence of the president of the Russian Federation with unmanned aerial vehicles,” the Kremlin said in a statement published on its website.

The Kremlin called the alleged attack a “terrorist act” and claimed that Russian military and security forces had disabled the drones before they could attack.

The drones and their fragments nevertheless fell on the Kremlin grounds, causing no casualties or material damage, the Kremlin said. A video of the episode was broadcast by Ukrainian media and showed the drone exploding over the Russian presidential residence.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that Putin was not in the Kremlin at the time and was working from the Novo-Ogaryovo residence.

The Kremlin added that Putin was safe and that his agenda had not changed. Shortly after, he released photos of Putin meeting with the governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region, Gleb Nikitin.

The official Tass agency quoted the statement as saying that the Kremlin considered the event a deliberate attack on Putin’s life before Victory Day, which Russia celebrates on May 9.

The Presidency warned that Russia “reserves the right to take retaliatory measures where and when it deems appropriate.”

The Kremlin did not present any evidence of the reported incident and its statement included few details.

For its part, Ukraine denied any involvement in the alleged attack.

“Ukraine has nothing to do with drone attacks against the Kremlin,” declared presidential advisor Mikhailo Podoliak. “Ukraine does not attack the Kremlin because, to begin with, that does not solve any military problem,” he added.

Along the same lines, the United States said it was taking Russia’s statements with great caution.

“I saw the information. “I can’t validate it, we don’t know,” said the head of US diplomacy, Antony Blinken, at an event in Washington. “I would take anything that comes out of the Kremlin with a grain of salt,” he added.

(With information from AFP)

Related