Russia says Ukraine drone caused Crimea fuel depot fire

MOSCOW/KYIV — A Ukrainian drone strike set ablaze a Russian fuel storage facility in the Crimean port of Sevastopol early on Saturday, the city's governor said on Saturday.

Experts examined the site and "it became clear that only one drone was able to reach the oil reservoir", Mikhail Razvozhaev, Sevastopol's governor, said on Telegram, adding that no one had been injured in the fire.

The governor blamed Ukraine and later said the fire had been put out before a disaster occurred.

A Ukrainian military intelligence official said more than 10 tanks of oil products with a capacity of about 40,000 metric tons intended for use by Russia's Black Sea Fleet were destroyed, RBC Ukraine reported.

Moscow has accused Kyiv of sending waves of aerial and seaborne drones to attack Crimea.

"The enemy … wanted to take Sevastopol by surprise, as usual, by staging a sneak attack in the morning," Razvozhaev wrote on Telegram. Russian firefighters had shown how to defeat a major blaze "and prevent a catastrophe", he added.

Andriy Yusov, a Ukrainian military official, told RBC the blast was in response to a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Uman on Friday.

As for the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday sounded the alarm over "increased military presence and activity" near the plant.

IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi said in a statement that the situation at the Zaporizhzhia plant "underlines the importance and urgency of agreeing on the protection of the plant".

In recent months, Grossi has been consulting with Ukraine and Russia on creating a safety zone at the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Grossi said IAEA experts had completed a rotation at the plant on Thursday to continue the agency's assessment of the facility's security situation.

While the special military operation continues, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the Black Sea grain export deal over the phone on Friday.

"They exchanged views on how to guarantee the improvement, expansion and extension of the Black Sea Initiative," said a readout issued by the UN chief's press office.

The two also talked about the improvement of the implementation of the memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN Secretariat on promoting Russian food products and fertilizers to the world market, the readout said.

In July, Russia and Ukraine separately signed a document in Istanbul with Turkiye and the UN on grain and fertilizer exports from Ukraine and Russia to ensure supplies to the global market amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The initial 120-day agreement was extended by another 120 days in November and again on March 18.

Circumstances are not yet in favor of extending the Black Sea grain export deal, the Kremlin said on Tuesday after Guterres sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, outlining a proposed way forward aimed at the improvement, extension and expansion of the deal.

Agencies-Xinhua