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Ukraine war: Kyiv denies responsibility for Russian fuel depot attack

Ukraine war: Kyiv denies responsibility for Russian fuel depot attack

Fuel depot inside Russia ablaze, Moscow blames ‘Ukrainian attack’

A fuel depot inside Russian territory was on fire on Friday, after what Russia called a cross-border air raid by Ukrainian helicopters.

The site is at Belgorod, one of Russia’s main logistics hubs for its Ukraine war effort, about 40 kilometres from the border. Ukraine said it would neither confirm nor deny responsibility.

“I can neither confirm nor reject the claim that Ukraine was involved in this,” said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, adding that he did not have all the “military information”.

An attack by Ukraine on Russian territory would be the first of its kind in the five-week war.

Security camera footage of the depot, from a location verified by Reuters, showed a flash of light from what appears to be a missile fired from low altitude in the sky, followed by an explosion on the ground.

The regional governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said two Ukrainian helicopters had been involved in the raid.

“At the moment, the Ukrainian state is carrying out a defence operation to repel Russian military aggression on Ukrainian territory,” said Ukrainian Defence Ministry spokesman Oleksandre Motouzianyk.

Reuters quoted an anonymous eyewitness from Belgorod as saying there were continuous explosions from the direction of the border.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that the incident would not “create appropriate conditions for further negotiations”.

However, shortly afterwards the Russian side announced the resumption of Russian-Ukrainian talks by videoconference.

(with AFP, Reuters)

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