Fuel tank in Crimea on fire due to a possible drone attack
08:25 | A fuel tank in the port city of Sevastopol on the Russian-annexed Crimea peninsula caught fire on Saturday. Russia says the fire was likely caused by a drone strike.
“According to preliminary information, the cause is a drone attack,” Russia-installed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev told Telegram, according to Russia’s state news agency TASS. No one would be hurt. However, according to the governor, “the highest level of alarm has been activated”.
The governor says the fire encompasses an area of 1,000 square meters. The images show large clouds of smoke over Sevastopol. According to Razvozhayev, there is no danger to the surrounding residential areas.
Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February last year, the peninsula has repeatedly been hit by airstrikes, sometimes causing severe damage or casualties. Russian officials blame Ukraine for these attacks.
Ukraine has not yet responded to the possible drone attack. Kiev almost never claims responsibility for attacks in Russia or Russian-occupied territories.
The Russian group Wagner may soon cease to exist, the founder tells the blogger
00:44 | Russia’s private militia Wagner, which is leading the attack on Bakhmut in Ukraine and has been active in Africa, may soon cease to exist, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said in video comments to a blogger released on Friday.
It was not immediately clear when Prigozhin spoke and how serious he was. Earlier this week, he retracted the frontline comments that he said were a joke.
Prigozhin has repeatedly complained about Russia’s conduct in the war in Ukraine. He often says the regular forces aren’t giving his men the ammunition they need and sometimes accuses the top brass of treason.
“Today we are getting to the point where Wagner is about to end,” he told Russian war blogger Semyon Pegov. ‘Wagner will soon cease to exist. We’ll be history, nothing to worry about, things like that happen,” he continued. Pegov posted the clip on his Telegram channel. Wagner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.