A fire tore through an oil depot in Russia’s Stavropol Krai overnight on July 13, and explosions rattled Moscow Oblast at roughly the same time. Monitoring channels said Ukrainian drones were behind both.
The Telegram channel Exilenova Plus reported that the Mikhailovskaya depot in the village of Mikhailovsk was set ablaze. The independent Russian outlet Astra, citing local residents, put the strike at a depot in nearby Vyazniki instead. Stavropol Krai Governor Vladimir Vladimirov confirmed a fire in an “industrial area” of Vyazniki. He did not say what was burning or why.
Both villages are suburbs of Stavropol. They lie about 365 kilometers (225 miles) from Ukraine, near the occupied city of Mariupol, and about 620 kilometers (385 miles) from Ukrainian-controlled territory in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
Follow the fuel
This was not the first hit on the area that week. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) reported on July 9 that a large fire had broken out at the Stavropolskaya oil depot in Vyazniki and kept spreading. Its strike drones also hit the Krasnaya Zvezda facility in Tver Oblast and started a fire there.
The logic is plain. Ukraine regularly targets military infrastructure deep inside Russia and in occupied territories, aiming to wear down Moscow’s ability to keep fighting.
The sea is part of the same effort. Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said drones struck 21 Russian tankers and seven other vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight on July 11. “The shadow tanker fleet is noticeably shrinking,” he wrote. “It appears traffic through the Kerch Strait has been stopped.”
The next day, July 12, he said 14 more Russian vessels had been destroyed. Kyiv is trying to choke off the funding for Russia’s war, he said, by eliminating the shadow fleet.
Casualties near Moscow
Later in the night, Exilenova Plus reported explosions in the town of Solnechnogorsk in Moscow Oblast as air defenses went into action. A residential building was hit there, and two people were injured, Governor Andrey Vorobyov said.
The worst of it came in the village of Pionersky. “Unfortunately, there are casualties and injuries. In the village of Pionersky, three people were killed, and three others were injured as a result of a drone crash. A fire broke out in five homes,” Vorobyov said.
Vorobyov reported that 81 drones were shot down over the region in total. The Kyiv Independent said it could not immediately verify the details.
Sources
- Ukraine reportedly strikes Russian oil depot in Stavropol Krai, explosions reported in Moscow Oblast
