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Drones strike oil depots near Crimea, in central Ukraine
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Ukraine says shot down 21 of 26 Iranian-made drones
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Strikes intensify as Ukraine’s counteroffensive nears
May 3 (Reuters) – Oil depots were ablaze in both Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday as both sides escalated a drone war targeting infrastructure ahead of Kyiv’s planned spring counter-offensive to try to end Moscow’s all-out invasion.
Scores of firefighters battled a huge fire that Russian authorities blamed on a Ukrainian drone crashing into an oil terminal on Russia’s side of the bridge it built to occupied Crimea.
In Ukraine, a fuel depot was also on fire after a suspected Russian drone strike on the central city of Kropyvnytskyi.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, an administrative building in the southern Dnipropetrovsk region was hit by a drone and set on fire. Ukraine said it had shot down 21 of 26 Iranian-made drones.
The two sides have been launching long-range strikes since last week in apparent anticipation of Ukraine’s upcoming counteroffensive, expected to be one of the most decisive phases of the war.
After a lull of nearly two months, Russia fired a wave of missiles before dawn last Friday, including one that killed 23 civilians while they slept in an apartment building in the city of Uman hundreds of miles from the front.
On Saturday, a suspected Ukrainian drone strike caused a fire at a Russian oil terminal in occupied Crimea. On Monday, Russia hit dozens of homes and an industrial enterprise in Dnipropetrovsk region that Kyiv did not identify. And blasts have derailed freight trains in Russia’s Bryansk region adjacent to Ukraine for the past two days in a row.
Moscow says its long range attacks have struck military targets, though it has produced no evidence to support this.
Kyiv does not comment on incidents in Russia or occupied Crimea but says destroying infrastructure supporting the Russian military in Ukraine is part of preparation for its planned ground assault, ready to begin at any time.
