Oil pipeline on fire in southern Russia after Ukrainian drone attack, governor says

The acting governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region reported a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on different industrial sites, including one area near the border where an oil pipeline was on fire.

Rostov Acting Governor Yuri Slyusar also reported falling debris from a downed drone had hit an industrial site near the border.

Slyusar reported a third attack had been repelled near Novoshakhtinsk, where previous drone attacks had put an oil refinery out of action.

Ukraine’s military said the refinery was again ablaze.

Reuters could not independently verify accounts of military action from either side.

“As a result of a mass drone attack in Chertovsky district, a fire has broken out on an oil pipeline,” Slyusar wrote on Telegram.

He said workers had been evacuated from the area, just over the border from Ukraine, and no casualties had occurred. Emergency crews had been dispatched to the scene.

Slyusar said falling fragments from a downed drone had triggered a fire at a storage facility of an industrial site in the same area near the border. Staff were evacuated, emergency services were at the site and there were no casualties, he said.

Slyusar said the attack on Novoshakhtinsk had been repelled with no casualties or damage on the ground.

A Ukrainian military Telegram channel showed pictures of what it described as the local oil refinery in flames.

Russian officials reported that Ukrainian forces attacked the refinery last December, disrupting its operations. Ukraine’s military reported another attack on the facility a month later.