(Reuters) – A fire broke out at an oil depot in the city of Feodosia on the Crimean coast of the Black Sea, Russian-appointed officials in the Crimean Peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014 said on Monday.
There were no casualties, Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to the Russian-installed head of Crimea, wrote on the Telegram messaging app, citing the head of the Feodosia administration.
There was no detail provided on what had caused the fire. The Baza Telegram news channel, which has sources among Russia’s security services, reported that several fuel tanks were on fire in Feodosia after residents heard a series of loud explosions.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports of explosions. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
The Russian defence ministry said that its air defence units destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over the territory of the Crimean Peninsula.
Street traffic in parts of Feodosia was temporarily restricted, Russian-installed officials in Crimea said on Monday on social media.
Ukraine’s air and sea drone attacks on Russian military targets in Crimea over the course of the war have damaged or destroyed several ships and naval repair yards in the Crimean port of Sevastopol and struck other targets.
Moscow uses its fleet in the Black Sea to launch long-range strikes on Ukraine. But for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, the waters that connect to the Mediterranean Sea are also an important springboard for projecting power into the Middle East and Europe.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christian Schmollinger)
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