A fire broke out at an oil terminal in the town of Tuapse in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai early Tuesday morning, according to town officials.
The fire reportedly started at about 2:00 a.m. on a street where, according to open data, a refinery owned by the state-controlled oil company Rosneft is located.
Tuapse residents reported hearing two explosions a few seconds apart, the local news outlet 93.ru reported. According to the Telegram channel Astra, the facility was attacked by “two unidentified aircraft,” which damaged the boiler room, and two craters roughly 1.5 meters (about five feet) deep were found outside the building.
The Telegram channels Baza and Shot reported that the facility was attacked by drones carrying explosives that fell about 100 meters (about 328 feet) from the refinery’s oil reservoirs. A source from Russia’s emergency services told the state news outlet RIA Novosti that “a drone was detected” near the terminal. Russian officials haven’t commented on the reports.
The Tuapse town administration and the regional Emergency Services Ministry reported that the fire didn’t damage any oil containers and that there were no casualties. According to 93.ru, Tuapse authorities called on residents to “avoid spreading fake information” as they could face criminal liability for doing so, adding that “there’s no cause for worry.”
The Telegram channel Astra also reported that a barracks housing Russian soldiers is located about 30 meters (about 100 feet) from the site of the explosions, though no other sources have corroborated that claim.