A Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at the Sheskharis oil terminal in Novorossiysk overnight, local Russian officials in the Krasnodar region confirmed Saturday. Two people were injured when falling drone debris ignited the blaze, authorities said.
Russia's Astra news outlet reported that Ukrainian drones struck the terminal and depot, which serves as the endpoint for Russian state-controlled pipeline company Transneft's main oil pipelines in the region. Images posted by Astra appeared to show smoke rising from the site, though they could not be independently verified.
On Saturday afternoon, Ukraine's General Staff confirmed the strike in a post on Telegram. "The facility provides shipment of oil and oil products for export and is involved in meeting the needs of the Russian army," the General Staff wrote, adding that Ukrainian forces had also struck a tanker in the Black Sea belonging to Russia's so-called "shadow fleet."
Attacks on Russian oil infrastructure have become almost daily occurrences as Ukraine has expanded its mid- and long-range strike capabilities, deploying drone and missile technology developed domestically to counter Russia's four-year-old invasion, according to the Associated Press.
Separately, the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike on a college dormitory in Starobilsk, a city in Russia-occupied Luhansk, rose to 12 on Saturday, according to Moscow-installed officials. President Vladimir Putin on Friday called the attack a "crime" and ordered the military to prepare proposals for retaliation. He said there were no military or law enforcement facilities near the college.
At a U.N. Security Council emergency meeting held at Russia's request, Ukrainian Ambassador Melnyk Andrii rejected accusations of war crimes, calling them a "pure propaganda show" and stating that the May 22 operations "exclusively targeted the Russian war machine."
