Ukraine says aerial attack sparks fire at key Russian oil depot 

Ukraine’s military says it has hit an oil depot in western Russia that fuels a key pipeline for Russian military supplies.

The military’s general staff said on Wednesday the overnight attack had caused a “massive fire” to break out at the facility in the Bryansk region.

Footage posted by the Astra Telegram channel, which shares war updates from Russian journalists, appeared to show huge flames towering into the sky near the targeted site. Ukrainian news site Pravda also published an image of the blaze.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz acknowledged a production facility in the region had caught fire after a drone attack, but said it had been extinguished.

“There were no casualties. Operational and emergency services are working on the scene,” Bogomaz said in a post on Telegram.

The Soviet-built Druzhba oil pipeline, which pumps oil from the fields in Western Siberia and the Caspian Sea to markets of Europe, runs through the Bryansk region, as does the Baltic Pipeline System which runs to the Baltic Sea.

Kazakhstan pipeline operator KazTransOil said the pipeline, which brings both Russian and Kazakh oil to Europe, was not damaged in the attack.

Also overnight, Ukraine’s military fired missiles at a Russian port on the Azov Sea, damaging an industrial facility and numerous cars, said Yuri Slyusar, the acting governor of Russia’s Rostov region.

Slyusar said 14 cars had caught fire at the Taganrog port, but he did not disclose details on what else was hit or how big the attack was.

Russia has an airbase near the city, from which military analysts say Russia’s air force operates drones, bombers and other weapons to attack Ukraine.

Meanwhile in Zaporizhzhia, one of the four Ukrainian regions Moscow claimed to annex in 2022 without fully controlling, casualties continued to mount from an attack the day before that hit a medical clinic and office building.

At least seven people have been confirmed killed and others are still trapped under the rubble, said Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on Wednesday. Twenty-two others, including a five-year-old girl, are wounded, according to Ukraine’s interior ministry.

The 34-month war in Ukraine, which has left tens of thousands dead and displaced millions, is entering what some Russian and Western officials say could be its final and most dangerous phase. Russian forces are advancing in eastern Ukraine at their fastest pace since the war’s onset and Ukraine has been using high-precision tactical missile systems against Russia.

United States President-elect Donald Trump, who has at times praised Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and suggested cutting aid to Ukraine if it does not make concessions to stop the fighting, has said ending the war will be a top priority once he enters the White House in January.

“I think we have to solve the Ukraine problem with Russia,” Trump told French magazine Paris Match in an interview recorded on Saturday and released on Wednesday.

“Both those countries [Russia and Ukraine] are losing numbers that nobody can believe. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are being killed,” Trump said. “And the Middle East is of course a big priority. But I think that the Middle East is a less difficult situation than Ukraine with Russia.”

During his election campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed he would be able to bring an end to the war in Ukraine within 24 hours.