Authorities in the southern Russian city of Proletarsk declared a state of emergency Monday after firefighters battled for more than 24 hours to extinguish a fire at an oil facility damaged by a Ukrainian drone.
Russia said Kyiv targeted the gasoline storage facility — located in the city of 20,000 people in the southern Rostov region — on Sunday morning, and the fire was still smoldering for the second day.
Local governor Vasily Golubev stated that the “liquidation of the fire is continuing” and that 18 firefighters were injured battling the blaze.
“Given the difficulty of the fire in the Proletarsk district, a high alert regime has been turned into a state of emergency,” he said on Telegram, adding that “forces and means” to extinguish the fire have been boosted.
Golubev stated that four of the injured firefighters had moderate to serious burns and that he had ordered additional medics to travel to Proletarsk.
Russian official media cited a statement from the local city government, which stated that there was no threat of the fire spreading to residential areas and urged people not to panic.
Social media videos showed a massive cloud of smoke pouring into the night sky.
Proletarsk is around 200 kilometres (120 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
Kyiv, which launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk area on August 6, has been targeting Russia’s oil infrastructure for more than a year already.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has described the strikes as “fair” reprisal for Moscow’s attacks on the country.