The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region claimed that two Ukrainian military helicopters flew across the border at low altitude on Friday morning and collided with a fuel storage facility, burning millions of gallons of fuel.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s Defense Ministry declined to comment on the Russian allegations. CNN could not confirm the Russian claims.
“I would like to emphasize that Ukraine is conducting a defensive operation on the territory of Ukraine against Russian aggression,” spokesman for Ukraine’s defense ministry, Oleksandr Motuzyannik, said in a televised statement on Friday.
“This does not mean that Ukraine should be responsible for every miscalculation or incident or catastrophe that occurred on the territory of the Russian Federation. I do not recommend, so I will neither confirm nor deny.
CNN’s geolocated and verified social media video showed two helicopters flying over the Russian city of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border, but it could not confirm that the helicopters are Ukrainian.
In one video, he is seen during an attack on a fuel storage facility. The video, which was shot about 1,800 feet (550 m) from the facility, shows multiple strikes and subsequent fires in the distance.
Russian state media outlet TASS reported, citing the Ministry of Emergency Situations, that the fire had “engaged fuel reservoirs”.
Russian state media outlet Riya Novosti, citing emergency services, reported that about 16,000 cubic meters (3.52 million gallons) of fuel caught fire, including eight tanks with 2,000 cubic meters of fuel each, and that the fire was likely another. Was. may spread. eight tanks.
Two employees of the depot were injured in the fire, but there was no threat to their lives, Belgorod regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on his Telegram channel on Friday. He said residents around the depot were being evacuated but there was no threat to the city’s population.
“The president was informed about Belgorod,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “You know that the Ministry of Emergencies was sent there. Steps are being taken to reorganize the fuel supply points so that what happened in any case does not affect the level of supply of all necessary types of fuel. ”
The Russian military claims air superiority over Ukraine.
“Air superiority during an operation is an absolute fact,” Peskov said. “And for what happened, it probably shouldn’t be us giving the assessment, but our law enforcement agencies.”
CNN’s Gianluca Mezzofor, Katie Polglas and Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.