Sept. 8 (UPI) — A Ukrainian drone strike ignited fuel tanks at a storage facility near the Russian town of Volokonovka Sunday, a regional governor said on the messaging app Telegram.
Photos and videos shared by local Telegram channels at around 6 p.m. local time show a large fire and smoke, reportedly in Belgorod Oblast, the governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, claimed.
Gladkov also alleged that Ukrainian drones attacked three settlements in the oblast, damaging several residential houses and cars. No casualties were reported, according to local media reports.
This would appear to be the latest in a series of Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian assets.
Earlier this month, officials claim dozens of other drones that were targeting Moscow, Tver, Voronezh, Tula, Kaluga, Bryansk, Belgorod, Lipetsk, and Kursk, were also shot down.
A local official claimed 158 drones were immobilized. Three of the drones reportedly targeted the Kashira power plant in the Moscow region.
Kyiv’s incursion into Kursk Oblast has entered its fourth week. Ukraine reportedly controls over 500 square miles and 100 settlements, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27.
As the war between Russia and Ukraine drags on, Romania and Latvia, both members of NATO, accused Russia of violating their airspace with military drones Sunday.
Since Russia launched its attack on Ukraine in 2022, Romania has confirmed drone fragments entering its territory on several occasions, as recently as this summer. The indiscriminate attacks and collateral damage by Russia have ramped up tensions with the West.
Romania’s Foreign Ministry protested the alleged violation of the country’s airspace by “criminal Russian aerial vehicles.”
The ministry also urged “Russia to stop its reckless escalation,” adding that it had opened consultations with NATO and its allies over the incidents, the ministry posted on X Sunday.
Romania scrambled two fighter jets after the drones entered the country’s airspace while heading toward Ukraine, where officials suspect it may have crashed.
NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general and Romania’s former top diplomat, Mircea Geoana, said the military alliance also condemned Russia’s violation of Romanian airspace.
“While we have no information indicating an intentional attack by Russia against Allies, these acts are irresponsible and potentially dangerous,” he wrote on X.
