Two Ukrainian helicopters bombed a gasoline depot on Russian territory in the town of Belgorod, in western Russia, about 40 km from the border with Ukraine, the local governor said on Friday.
The Kremlin estimated that the attack will affect bilateral negotiations to end the offensive in Ukraine.
“It is clear that this cannot be considered as something that will create the appropriate conditions for the continuation of negotiations,” said Dmitri Peskov, spokesman for the Russian presidency.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said for his part that he could not confirm or deny the information from Moscow. “I am a civilian,” he told reporters in Warsaw.
This attack, the first of its kind by Ukrainian aviation if confirmed, comes after Russia repeatedly claimed that it has full control of the airspace in Ukraine where it is conducting what it calls a special military operation.
As indicated in his Telegram account, the governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, “there was a fire in the oil depot due to a bombardment launched by two Ukrainian military helicopters, which entered Russian territory flying at low altitude.”
In another message, the governor indicated that firefighters were working to put out the fire and that two warehouse employees were injured. The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations affirmed on its side that 170 rescuers were intervening at the scene.
The ministry released a video showing firefighters in thermal suits putting out the flames. He said he was warned of the fire at 0551 (0251 GMT) and confirmed the balance of two injured.
The energy giant Rosneft, which owns the deposit, informed the Russian agencies that it evacuated its personnel at the site.
On the other hand, the director of a printing company near Belgorod, Konstantin Lakhnov, assured that his company was hit by fire from helicopters.
“Helicopters fired rockets at us… the windows are damaged, the equipment is destroyed or damaged… the roof is damaged,” he told the state agency TASS.
After the attack, local media reported queues of vehicles at gas stations, but Energy Minister Nikolai Shulguinov assured that there would be no shortage of fuel.
Videos, allegedly recorded in Belgorod, were spread on social networks showing a helicopter launching missiles, and then the explosion.
On Wednesday, explosions were reported at an ammunition depot in the Belgorod region, without the Russian authorities clearly explaining the reason for the incident.
Belgorod is located about 80 km north of Kharkiv, a large Ukrainian city under attack by Russian forces since the start of the Kremlin offensive.
On February 25, local and Ukrainian media reported a Ukrainian attack on a Russian air base near Rostov, without it being officially confirmed.
