Image description

Ukraine said on Friday it had hit an oil depot in Russia’s Voronezh border region in a drone attack.

Kyiv has targeted Russian energy sites with long-range drones in a growing number of attacks it says are legitimate as they target fuel supplies for Moscow’s army.


A source in the SBU security service said a depot with 20 fuel and lubricant tanks was hit in an overnight drone attack.

‘The enemy’s air defences were active but unsuccessful,’ the source said, adding there were reports of a ‘massive fire’.

Russian emergency services reported a fire was raging over 2,000 square metres in a warehouse storing hydrocarbon products in the Voronezh region.

The Voronezh regional governor said earlier that a Ukrainian drone had hit an empty tank at an oil depot and a small fire was put out.

Both countries typically launch dozens of drones at each other every night, attempting to hit targets deep behind front lines.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian car bomb attack killed an official of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Friday, officials from both countries said.

Kyiv has attacked several high-profile people branded ‘collaborators’ and ‘traitors’ for working with Russian forces since Moscow invaded in February 2022.

Ukraine’s GUR military intelligence directorate said a car bomb blast on Friday morning had killed Andriy Korotky, whom it identified as the ‘head of physical security’ at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

It called him a ‘war criminal’ who ‘voluntarily cooperated with the Russian invaders,’ had provided details on ‘pro-Ukrainian’ plant employees and ‘participated in the repression’ of the plant’s staff.

The GUR posted a low-quality video showing a white SUV driving slowly before exploding, obliterating the car and spreading debris and smoke all around.

Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said an improvised explosive device was placed under his car at home, which then detonated when he started driving.

‘The victim died of his injuries in hospital,’ it said, adding that a criminal case had been opened.

Russian-backed authorities at the facility said Korotky had been killed in a ‘terrorist attack committed by the Kyiv regime.’

The plant’s director, Yury Chernichuk, appointed by Russia, called it a ‘reckless’ attack that ‘must be punished’.

The plant said Korotky was also a former head of the local council in Russian-controlled Energodar, the town where the nuclear power plant is located.

Russian forces seized the plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, in the first weeks of their 2022 invasion.