Russia has accused Ukraine of striking an oil depot in its Belgorod region, located along the Russia-Ukraine border.
According to the governor of Belgorod, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the Ukrainian military used “lethal drones” to stage an attack on the Russian oil storage facility, resulting in an explosion after the oil reserves caught fire.
Gladkov also claimed that Ukraine bombed three more regions in Belgorod, which destroyed two residential and 13 other buildings and injured three people, including two children.
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, oil depots and ports on both sides of the border have been vulnerable to bombings as these facilities mostly store flammable materials, which allows the warring nations to inflict heavy damage on each other with simple strikes.
In late August, Ukraine bombed an oil storage facility in Russia’s Rostov region and set the depot ablaze, with three oil tanks catching fire. On August 18, Ukraine struck another oil depot in Rostov city, deep inside mainland Russia.
Similarly, Ukraine launched a major aerial attack on Russia in early August to strike military infrastructure and oil facilities. During this attack, Russia stated it had intercepted at least 75 Ukrainian drones, which were deployed to damage the country’s critical energy infrastructure. At the time, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his military for the attacks, stating that this assault would “just end” the war.
On the other hand, Russia has relied on bombing critical port infrastructure of Ukraine apart from targeting its civilian facilities. In July, Russia struck Ukraine’s largest port, Odsea, resulting in the death of two people.
As both Russia and Ukraine take the aerial confrontation to new heights, the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) is worried that a simple miscalculation in drone attacks could lead to a nuclear catastrophe.
The IAEA voiced concerns about alleged Russian strikes on the cooling tower of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Zaporizhzhia (ZNPP), which has been under Russian control since 2022.
While the IAEA stated that the attacks on the plant’s cooling towers do not directly pose a nuclear security hazard, the flames at the site of the attack can expand to more critical facilities that could lead to nuclear mayhem.
The IAEA observers have repeatedly issued warnings about a possible nuclear accident on the ZNPP, but Russia has largely ignored these calls.
These aerial clashes are not limited to oil facilities and ports, however. Russia has repeatedly bombed Ukrainian schools and hospitals over the last two and a half years, raising the eyebrows of human rights watchdogs who have slammed Russia for targeting innocent children in the pursuit of asserting its military might.
According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), Russia has damaged more than 1,736 healthcare facilities across Ukraine since February 2022.
