MOSCOW, April 28 (Reuters) – A Ukrainian drone attack caused a major fire at a Russian oil refinery in the city of Tuapse on Tuesday, officials said, in the third attack on the Black Sea port in less than two weeks.
Ukraine’s military confirmed it had carried out the attack, the latest in an intensified series of strikes designed to disrupt Russia’s oil industry and slash revenues that help Moscow to fund the war in Ukraine.
President Vladimir Putin ordered Emergencies Minister Alexander Kurenkov to travel to Tuapse to oversee firefighting efforts and deal with the aftermath of the incident.
The Kremlin accused Ukraine of exacerbating a global oil shortage by targeting storage facilities containing oil intended for export.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Moscow’s accusations. In the past, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Russian exports were not significant enough to affect global market prices.
Images on social media showed dense black smoke rising from the direction of the Tuapse refinery. The state consumer watchdog told people to stay indoors and keep windows closed.
Following a previous attack on April 20, black rain fell on the Black Sea port town and a popular beach resort, leaving an oily residue.
The refinery halted production on April 16 because of drone damage to the port that made it impossible to ship its production, industry sources told Reuters. At least three people have been killed in the strikes, according to officials, and one of them led to an oil spill at sea.
The head of the Tuapse district, Sergei Boyko, on Tuesday ordered people living near the refinery to evacuate by bus to a local school.
SOME RESIDENTS VOICE ANGER AFTER ATTACK
On social media, some residents expressed anger, demanding an explanation why air defences had not been strengthened to prevent a third successive attack, and some complained that Moscow was indifferent to their plight.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said authorities were “working intensively” to combat Ukrainian drone strikes.
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian energy targets since March, with U.S.-brokered peace talks on pause and Washington mainly focusing on the Iran war.
The Tuapse refinery has annual production capacity of about 12 million metric tons, or 240,000 barrels per day, turning out naphtha, diesel, fuel oil and vacuum gasoil.
(Reporting by Reuters, Writing by Mark TrevelyanEditing by Tomasz Janowski)
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