Russia introduces state of emergency over fire caused by Kyiv drone

MOSCOW (AFP): Authorities in the southern Russian city of Proletarsk introduced a state of emergency Monday as firefighters battle for more than 24 hours to extinguish a blaze at an oil facility hit by a Ukrainian drone.

Russia said Kyiv struck the fuel storage warehouse – located in the city of 20,000 people in the southern Rostov region – on Sunday morning and that the blaze was raging for a second day.

Local governor Vasily Golubev said the “liquidation of the fire is continuing” and that 18 firefighters were hurt tackling 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 the “forces and means” to put out the fire had been increased.

Golubev said four of the injured firefighters had moderate to severe burns and that he had ordered more medics to go to Proletarsk.

Russian state media quoted a statement of the local city administration that said there was no threat of the fire spreading to residential areas and called on people “not to give in to panic.”

Videos on social media showed a huge cloud of smoke billowing into the air at night.

Proletarsk lies some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Kyiv, which on August 6 launched of a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, has been hitting Russia’s oil infrastructure for over a year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called the strikes “fair” retaliation for Moscow’s attacks on his country.