Russia burning as Ukraine launches massive attack with 'more than 50 explosions'

Russia has been left burning after a major oil depot was struck by Ukrainian forces overnight. Locals in the port city of Novorossiysk, on Russia’s Black Sea coast, reported 50 explosions, according to social media.

Images showed smoke billowing from the Grushovaya oil terminal, with the sky turned orange as it burned. The facility is reportedly the largest of its kind in the Caucasus region, capable of storing around 1.2 million cubic meters of petroleum products. There has been no confirmation of casualties, and the Russian or Ukrainian authorities have yet to comment.

The facility last came under attack two weeks ago as Ukraine’s armed forces continue to ramp up strikes on Russian oil and energy infrastructure in recent months.

The almost daily attacks have damaged Russian oil production and export, weakening its war economy and sparking fuel shortages to spread across the country.

Long-range Ukrainian drones have proved increasingly devastating against the oil and fuel sites, as well as other targets.

The assault on the Grushovaya facility, in Russia’s Krasnodar Kra region, is believed to have been carried out by several attack drones.

Ukraine is reported to have carried out other attacks overnight, including a Russian navy base in the Leningrad region and electrical substations in occupied Mariupol.

It came less than 48 hours after Moscow accused Kyiv of an “unprecedented attack” on and around St Petersburg as the Russian city hosted a major economic forum.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “the enemy navy’s arsenals and a base in Kronstadt” were targeted.

An oil depot in Krasnodar was also struck in the attacks which came a day after Vladimir Putin rejected an offer to meet his Ukrainian counterpart for peace talks.