Ukrainian drone strike on Russian port causes fire, toxic smoke as locals fault officials for withholding public health information
Ukrainian drones struck the oil-loading infrastructure at the port of Tuapse overnight, sparking a large fire after debris fell at the site. The Krasnodar Krai operational headquarters said no one was injured. Within a few hours, satellite images showed smoke had spread at least 140 kilometers (87 miles).
Krasnodar Krai Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram that authorities had begun evacuating residents living near the terminal “for safety reasons” and were temporarily housing them in a school. The local outlet Kuban Inform reported that classes were canceled at all schools in the city and that kindergartens were running only skeleton programs.
Authorities released almost no operational information about firefighting efforts or air quality in the city. Kondratyev’s Telegram channel published a single post that morning — the one already mentioned — addressing the drone strike and the evacuation. The regional operational headquarters reposted it and, as of this writing, has issued no updates since. Tuapse Mayor Sergei Boyko, beyond reposting Kondratyev’s message, published an evacuation call for residents of nearby streets. The local Rospotrebnadzor office posted a guidance sheet with recommendations on what to do “in connection with the fire and the associated risks” — a brief list of basic tips: don’t open windows, try to stay indoors, mop floors more frequently.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov effectively declined to address the situation at a press briefing, saying “any information about sites struck as a result of the Kyiv regime’s attacks is classified.” “Appropriate measures are being taken to address the damage,” he added, without elaborating.
Eyewitnesses described conditions in the city as critical. Anastasia Troyanova, a correspondent for the independent Russian environmental outlet Kedr, reported that black flows were visible in the Tuapse River, sharply different in color from the water and resembling petroleum products.
The night was terrifying. Right now, enormous black columns of smoke are hanging over the city. There’s a smell of burning. People are mostly walking around without respirators or in simple medical masks. They say they’ve gotten used to the smell and can’t detect it anymore — which is very dangerous, because that’s how you can be poisoned. The wind helps a little — it disperses the smoke somewhat. But as someone who has been here for three days, I can say I already have a cough and conjunctivitis.
Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed the strike on the Tuapse refinery, saying it had been carried out “to reduce Russia’s military-economic potential.” The plant, the General Staff said, was being used to supply Russia’s occupation forces in Ukraine.
The attack was the third Ukrainian strike on Tuapse this month to cause a fire at the port and serious environmental damage. The first two came on April 16 and April 20; both times, drones hit civilian buildings in addition to port infrastructure. Three people were killed in those attacks, including two children, and 10 were injured.
The first port fire took three days to extinguish; afterward, an oil slick covering roughly 10,000 square meters (107,639 square feet) was discovered in the Black Sea. The second burned for nearly five days, during which air quality in the city deteriorated sharply and “oil” rains fell.
Residents posted photographs of pets covered in soot and black puddles in the streets, complaining that authorities were providing almost no information about how the situation was developing — including about levels of harmful substances in the air.
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