Russia-Ukraine war: Sevastopol fuel depot blast was preparatory to Ukrainian counter-offensive

A Ukrainian drone strike that destroyed an oil depot in occupied Crimea was part of Ukraine’s preparations for its counter-offensive, a military spokesman has said.

Natalia Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian military spokesman, said Russian logistics were being targeted to undermine morale and spread panic.

“This work is preparatory to the large-scale full-scale offensive that everyone expects,” she told Ukrainian media on Sunday.

Aerial and naval drone attacks on Sevastopol have worried residents, holidaymakers and the Russian navy.

Last year, the Russian navy withdrew its main submarine force to Novorossiysk, 289km away on the Russian mainland coast to avoid drone attacks.

Following the attack on Saturday on the fuel depot, Russian media later reported traffic jams over the Crimea Bridge as residents and holidaymakers fled.

‘Russians don’t feel peace’

Sevastopol is significant as it is home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

In 2014, it hosted Vladimir Putin when he announced Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea.

Gumenyuk said that Russians “don’t feel peace in the bays of Sevastopol” any more.

Ukraine’s military said that the drone attack had destroyed 40,000 tonnes of fuel. Russian officials confirmed the drone strike and said that nobody had been injured in the attack.

The strike on the fuel depot comes as Ukrainian officials talk up the start of their much-anticipated counter-offensive, possibly aimed at recapturing the peninsula.

On Saturday evening, in an interview with Swedish media, Volodymyr Zelenksyy said that although Ukraine has not yet received all the sophisticated weapons it had asked for, it would shortly launch its counter-offensive.

“There will be a counter-attack, and I think it will succeed,” he said. “Have we had enough armaments for that? I would say that we are on the way to the fact that we are.”

Ukraine accused of shelling village

Russian officials in occupied Melitopol, regarded as the “Gateway to Crimea”, have reported a build-up of Ukrainian soldiers and also increased incursions by Ukrainian patrols across the Dnipro River, which forms the frontline.

And officials in the Bryansk region of southern Russia on Sunday also accused Ukrainian forces of shelling a village near the border and killing four people. Ukraine has denied responsibility.

Villages in Bryansk and Belgorod have been hit several times since the start of the war.

“Four civilians have been killed,” Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on the Telegram messaging app. Two other citizens were being treated in hospital, he added.

Bogomaz earlier said that one residential building had been completely destroyed and two other houses partially destroyed.

Bogomaz blamed the incident on “Ukrainian nationalists”. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for attacks inside Russia and on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine.

Both sides deny targeting civilians in the 14-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s Bryansk region borders Ukraine. The village of Suzemka, where the incident occurred, is around 10km from the border.