KYIV: Ukraine said on Saturday it had attacked an oil terminal in Russia’s western Oryol region a day after Russia launched a massive attack targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure.
The governor of Oryol said on Telegram that fuel had caught fire at “a facility” in the region after a “massive drone attack”.
The Ukraine military’s General Staff said Kyiv’s forces had attacked a major oil depot in Stalnoy Kon, about 165 kilometres (100 miles) into Russian territory.
“It’s one of the largest oil terminals in the suburbs of the city of Oryol” and is part of a “military industrial complex” that supplies the Russian army, the General Staff said.
Russian media showed images, purportedly of the attack, showing clouds of smoke billowing up into the night sky from a fire.
Oryol regional governor Andrey Klychkov said on Telegram on Saturday that Russian anti-air defences had shot down Ukrainian drones during the attack and the fire had been brought under control at 5:00 am (0200 GMT) although it had not yet been extinguished.
He said there had been no casualties.
The governor said that air defences had downed 11 drones over the region.
In Russia’s Belgorod region, which also borders Ukraine, a drone attack killed one person, said the governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Ukraine regularly attacks military and energy infrastructure in Russia, sometimes deep into its neighbour’s territory, in response to Russian attacks on its own infrastructure.
Kyiv’s General Staff said Russia had attacked overnight with 132 drones, claiming 130 of them were downed or failed to reach targets. Russia’s military said Saturday that it had downed 60 drones overnight.
On Friday, Russia launched a huge attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, which authorities said was the twelfth large-scale attack on energy facilities this year.
Ninety-three missiles and more than 200 drones were used, President Volodomyr Zelensky said.
The strikes targeted sites in western Ukraine, with energy facilities in several regions have been damaged.
Russia said the attack was in response to a Ukrainian strike on a military airbase in south-west Russia using US-made missiles, which US President-elect Donald Trump described as “crazy”.
In an interview with Time magazine on Thursday, to mark being named Person of the Year, Trump said he disagreed “very vehemently” with American made missiles targeting sites in Russia.
“We’re just escalating this war and making it worse,” he said.
On Friday, the Kremlin said that Trump’s comments were “fully aligned” with Moscow’s position.
“That impresses us,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It is obvious that Trump understands exactly what is escalating the situation.”
Trump also told Time he wanted to reach an agreement to end the war, and the only way to do that was “not to abandon”.
