Eva Deschamps / April 1, 2022
A Russian official accused Ukraine on Friday of carrying out a helicopter attack on an oil depot in the western Russian city of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
A fire in an oil depot took place due to an air strike conducted by two helicopters of the Ukrainian army that entered Russian territory at low altitude, said on his Telegram account the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov.
In another message, he said firefighters were working to extinguish the blaze and that two depot employees had been injured. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations says 170 rescue workers are responding.
The state-owned company Rosneft, which owns the site, told Russian news agencies that it had evacuated its staff from the site.
On Wednesday, explosions took place in an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region, without the Russian authorities clearly explaining the cause of the incident.
Belgorod is located about 80 kilometers north of Kharkiv, a major Ukrainian city under attack by Russian forces since the beginning of the Kremlin offensive.