The wave of sabotage and attacks continues in Russian territories close to the border with Ukraine, a country that has been suffering Russian military intervention for more than 14 months. In the early hours of this Wednesday, after a drone attack, a fuel tank caught fire in the Krasnodar Krai, very close to the emblematic Kerch Bridge, which links the annexed Crimean peninsula with mainland Russia. In response to the sabotage, Russia launched a new drone attack against Ukraine.
The Russian attack targeted the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and other eastern regions. According to the Ukrainian authorities, the number of drones was 26, of which they managed to intercept 21.
None reached Kyiv. “All enemy targets were identified and shot down in the airspace around the capital,” Serhii Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on Telegram.
Three of the aircraft were directed against an oil infrastructure in the Kirovograd province, in the center of the country, the military authorities of that area reported.
This Russian attack appears to be a response to Ukrainian attacks and sabotage on Russian territory, as it comes after several infrastructures and train tracks that Russia uses to supply fuel to its troops in Ukraine have exploded in recent days.
Ukraine has never claimed responsibility for these attacks, but its leaders have occasionally made sarcastic comments or expressed satisfaction at the damage caused. Moscow does attribute authorship to Kyiv.
“We are aware that the Kyiv regime, which is behind a series of terror attacks, plans to continue its line,” Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov said on Tuesday.
According to the governor of the Russian region of Krasnodar, VeniamÃn Kondratiev, in the early hours of this Wednesday a drone hit a tank of petroleum products in the town of Volna.
According to the first data of the political leader, the impact has caused neither victims nor injuries. The residents are not in danger, “everything possible is being done so that the fire does not spread further,” he assured.
The town of Volná is located on the Black Sea coast, on the small peninsula of Taman and near the port of the same name. There are also facilities of the Tamanneftegaz company for the transport of oil, derived products and liquefied petroleum gas.
From that peninsula, in addition, the Kerch Bridge starts, a key infrastructure for the Kremlin. Sometimes known as the Crimean bridge, it is a personal project of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who launched it after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. Opened in 2018 over the Kerch Strait, it is an important artery for the Russian forces.
In October 2022, there was a truck bomb attack on the same bridge, blowing up a train’s fuel tankers and disrupting rail traffic for several days.
The attack on the Krasnodar depot came hours after a 20-car freight train was derailed by an explosive device in Briansk Oblast, also bordering Ukraine.
Since Russia sent its troops to Ukraine, Russian border regions have been regularly hit by shells and drones sent from Ukrainian territory.
The latter, moreover, have managed to penetrate hundreds of kilometers into Russia. Last February a drone was found near the city of Kolomna, about a hundred kilometers from Moscow. And last week a crashed one was found in the Bolgorodski district, 30 kilometers east of the Russian capital. According to the local press, it was the third in two days.
Attacks and sabotage in Russian regions have also increased in recent days.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, a drone attack caused a fire in a fuel tank in the port of Sevastopol, the base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. From Ukraine, what happened was described as a “punishment from God”, a response to the deaths on Friday of 23 civilians in the Ukrainian city of Uman after a Russian missile attack.
This Monday, May 1, a train heading to Belarus derailed in Russia’s Briansk region, in the same way that the second train fell on Tuesday: an explosive device on the railway.
On Sunday there was an explosion at a high-voltage pylon in the Leningrad Oblast, which keeps the Soviet name and surrounds the city of Saint Petersburg.
