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A nighttime drone assault by Ukraine targeted an oil depot close to Russia’s Black Sea resort city of Sochi, igniting a significant fire, Russian authorities reported on Sunday, amid ongoing tit-for-tat attacks between the two nations.
Over 120 firefighters worked tirelessly to douse the flames that erupted when debris from a downed drone impacted a fuel tank, said Krasnodar regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev on Telegram.
Videos on social media appeared to show huge pillars of smoke billowing above the oil depot.
Russia’s civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, temporarily stopped flights at Sochi’s airport.
Further north, authorities in the Voronezh region reported that four people were wounded in another Ukrainian drone strike.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down 93 Ukrainian drones over Russia and the Black Sea overnight into Sunday.
Simultaneously, in southern Ukraine, a Russian missile attack struck a residential zone in Mykolaiv city, as per the State Emergency Services, resulting in injuries to seven individuals.
The Ukrainian air force said Sunday Russia launched 76 drones and seven missiles against Ukraine.
It said 60 drones and one missile were intercepted, but 16 others and six missiles hit targets across eight locations.
The reciprocal attacks came at the end of one of the deadliest weeks in Ukraine in recent months, after a Russian drone and missile attack on Thursday killed 31 people, including five children, and wounded over 150.
The continued attacks come after US President Donald Trump gave on Tuesday Russian President Vladimir Putin a shorter deadline — Aug. 8 — for peace efforts to make progress.
Trump said Thursday that special envoy Steve Witkoff is heading to Russia to push Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in its war with Ukraine and has threatened new economic sanctions if progress is not made.