Suspected drone strike hits huge fuel tank in Russian resort town
New footage of an explosion in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi shows the moment the inferno erupted at an airport in the Russian city.
The fire broke out at a fuel and lubricants warehouse at the Adler airport in the early hours of Wednesday, according to Aleksei Kopaigorodskii, the mayor of Sochi.
There were no casualties and the airport has resumed operating "as normal," Kopaigorodskii wrote in a Telegram post on Wednesday.
Officials have not confirmed the cause of the fire, but Russian Telegram channels Baza and SHOT reported that it was the result of a drone strike. The channels did not say in their reports how they obtained this information.
People living nearby said they heard sounds resembling a "moped" shortly before a loud explosion, according to SHOT, which wrote that the fire was burning on a tank with 1,200 tons of fuel.
The channel published footage of what appears to be an object falling onto a fuel tank before light engulfs the camera.
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It's currently unclear what strategic value the oil depot in Sochi holds. But the resort town, which sits on Russia's border with Georgia and was the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics, is frequented by Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who often hosts foreign dignitaries there.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko met with Putin in Sochi, where they spoke on Wednesday about Russia's warming ties with North Korea.
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Both sides in this war are hitting non-strategic targets in an effort to drive up the cost of the war. It is possible that fuel has become a strategic target much like a weapons depot. The meeting between Putin and Lukashenko could have been enough to trigger the attack and show Putin that he too is vulnerable.
See, also:
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Igor Girkin, a former FSB security operative who goes by the nom de guerre Stelkov, which is Russian for shooter, dictated a doomsday-esque diatribe to his Telegram via his attorney this week, warning that Russia is on the brink of collapse and offering himself up as a uniting force for remaining "patriots."
Girkin was arrested on extremism charges in July after months of castigating Putin and the country's top defense officials while flouting Russian laws that forbid wartime criticism. The ultra-nationalist blogger has suggested several times that Putin and his generals haven't gone far enough in the war in Ukraine, even calling for the full mobilization of Russia's population.
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Russian drone attack on a city in western Ukraine sparks an inferno at a warehouse and kills 1
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US charges Hong Kong based-Russian with smuggling military technology to Russia
And ISW reports:
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Russian losses have reportedly significantly increased in western Zaporizhia Oblast in recent days, and the Russian military likely struggles with a lack of available combat-effective units that the Russian command is willing to laterally redeploy to this sector of the front. Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Spokesperson Colonel Oleksandr Shtupun stated that Russian forces lost 313 personnel (likely a total of killed and wounded) in the Tavriisk direction on September 18, including western Zaporizhia Oblast. Shtupun stated that this is significantly higher than Russian losses during the previous two days when Russian forces lost roughly 200 personnel each day.[17] Shtupun stated that Russian Airborne (VDV) forces are conducting defensive operations in the Tavriisk direction (likely in western Zaporizhia Oblast) and that “Storm-Z” detachments with convict recruits have arrived to act as “cover” for VDV units, possibly referring to the need to cover the VDV units during a potential withdrawal.[18] ISW has previously observed elements of the 7th Guards Mountain VDV Division and 76th Guards VDV Division conducting counterattacks against Ukrainian forces in the Robotyne (10km south of Orikhiv) area, and ISW has previously assessed that these operations have likely degraded these VDV forces heavily.[19] “Storm-Z” detachments are often combat ineffective and will likely provide the Russian defense in western Zaporizhia Oblast with marginal combat power.
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And:
Exclusive-Coal from Russian-annexed Ukraine sold in NATO member Turkey - data, sources
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