Ukraine's military said its drones set a major oil depot ablaze in Russian-occupied Crimea early Monday in an attempt to starve Russia's army of fuel.
Residents in the port city of Feodosia said a series of powerful blasts rocked the coastal Black Sea city around 4:30 a.m. local time and sent pillars of flame and smoke into the sky near the JSC Marine Oil Terminal, the Kyiv Post reported.
About 300 people had to be evacuated, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported, citing Russian state-owned news agency Tass, which confirmed the fire and said there were no casualties.
Two huge oil tanks were destroyed and two were still burning hours later, according to the Kyiv Post, which said recent satellite photos showed a total of 33 tanks at the site.
The depot "is the largest in Crimea in terms of the transshipment of petroleum products which were used, in particular, for the needs of the Russian army," the Ukrainian military said on social media.
Ukraine's General Staff also said the drone attack was part of an ongoing effort to "undermine the military and economic potential of the Russian Federation," according to the Associated Press.
Officials in Feodosia initially called it a "man-made emergency situation" but later retracted that assessment, according to Tass.
"Colleagues, a technical failure occurred. No municipal emergency situation was introduced in Feodosia," the Russian-installed city administration said in a statement.
