Russia has suffered a major setback, after a Ukrainian kamikaze drone was seen setting off a ‘doomsday’ explosion at a key oil facility.
The Steel Horse facility supplies Vladimir Putin’s armed forces, but also links to the Druzhba pipeline which sends Russian oil to Europe.
It was reported ablaze after a concerted attack with Russia claiming to have shot down 20 drones over the Oryol region, where the depot is located.
Video showed the sky light up in vivid apocalyptic yellow and orange colours as air defences sought to defend the strategic oil depot.
The giant oil depot has been targeted at least three times previously, including a successful strike one week ago when a fire burned for several days.
Separate Ukrainian strikes recently have homed in on supply bases for the Druzhba pipeline which is key to oil supplies for Hungary and Slovakia, both of which have opposed military aid and NATO membership for Ukraine.
The Governor of Oryol region Andrey Klychkov spoke of a ‘massive enemy UAV attack’, urging people to ‘please remain calm’.
He said: ‘The attack is still ongoing.
‘There is currently no information on casualties or injuries. Emergency services are already on-site and are taking measures to extinguish the fire.’
The Russian defence ministry said: ‘Last night an attempt by the Kyiv regime to carry out a terrorist attack using unmanned aerial vehicles against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation was stopped.’
Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Sunday its air defence systems destroyed 42 Ukrainian drones over five Russian regions during the night.
Putin said today following the attacks that he would bring more ‘destruction’ to Ukraine.
‘Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country,’ Putin said during a televised government meeting on Sunday.
It comes as Russia claimed fresh advances on the battlefield in east Ukraine.
The defence ministry said on Telegram that its troops had ‘liberated’ the villages of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye – called Sontsivka in Ukraine.
The latter is close to the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize in Moscow’s attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region.
Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January.
The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year-long conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.
Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.