(Reuters) -A fuel storage facility near a key bridge in Russia’s southwestern region of Krasnodar was on fire in the early hours of Wednesday, the regional governor said, but there were no initial reports of casualties.
Flames and black smoke billowed over what appeared to be large tanks emblazoned with red warnings of “Flammable” in videos posted on Russian social media, although Reuters could not independently verify either the fire reports or the videos.
“The fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar, which lies across the Sea of Azov from Ukraine, said on the Telegram messaging app.
The blaze broke out in the village of Volna, in the Temryuk administrative district, he said. It lies close to the Crimean Bridge, or the Kerch Strait bridge, that links Russia’s mainland with the Crimea peninsula it annexed in 2014 from Ukraine.
“Every effort is being made to prevent the fire from spreading further,” Kondratyev added. “There is no threat to residents of the village.”
The incident comes after a drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Saturday, in what Moscow said was a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia and on Russian-controlled territory.
Over the weekend, however, Kyiv’s military said undermining Russia’s logistics formed part of preparations for a long-expected counteroffensive.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Clarence Fernandez)