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Vladimir Putin has been dealt yet another blow after a Ukrainian strike on a strategic oil storage depot sparked a blaze which has been burning for three days.
The Proletarsk diesel facility – used to supply the Russian military machine in the war – was hit in a kamikaze drone blitz on Sunday.
A total of 22 out of 74 giant fuel tanks have been burnt out or engulfed by the inferno with reported explosions – and more are expected to follow suit.
It is one of Ukraine’s most successful strikes of the war.
Russia has some 520 firefighters at the scene, but experts say the inferno is likely to last for several more days.
Dozens of firefighters have been injured in the blaze, and residents in Rostov region have complained of noxious fumes.
Russian authorities initially said the strike had been thwarted, and the explosions had been the result of drone debris falling to the ground – a line commonly used to mask direct hits.
Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said: ‘A drone attack was repelled in the southeast of the Rostov region.
‘Falling fragments set fire to diesel fuel stored at an industrial warehouse in Proletarka.’
Three firefighting trains have been called in and reports say the authorities plan to use special water-bombing planes to extinguish the blaze which is visible from space.
A smoke plume has been seen stretching miles across the Rostov region.
Telegram channel First News of the War reported that the facility has ‘strategic importance in the context of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine’.
They added: ‘Its location in Rostov region near the conflict zone makes it a vital asset for supplying fuel and logistics to the Russian military.’
The depot includes jet fuel and petrol.
Ukraine continues to push further inside Russia on an audacious incursion, which is intended to stop President Putin from claiming parts of Ukraine as part of a peace settlement.
It’s the biggest foreign attack on Russia since the Second World War and a major humiliation for Putin two and a half years after he ordered troops to invade.
The incursion has focused on the Kursk oblast, where the Ukrainians earlier targeted bridges across the Seim river.
The country’s troops will now be forced to use boats or pontoons to evacuate residents and move in military supplies to defend their own land.
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