Near Sochi airport
Drone attack sets fire to Russian fuel depot
September 20, 2023, 2:41 p.m
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Early this morning, a diesel reservoir exploded near the airport in Sochi, Russia. The impact of a flying object can be seen on videos; according to media reports, it was a kamikaze drone. This will cause a fire.
According to media reports, a drone attack triggered a fire in a fuel depot in the southern Russian coastal city of Sochi this morning. According to the Russian online news portal Baza, a diesel reservoir near the airport in the Adler district burned out after a suspected kamikaze drone was hit. According to the regional administration, no one was injured. The fire, which was around 100 square meters in size, has now been extinguished.
According to the government, the causes of the explosion are still to be clarified. However, images and videos published on the Internet show the moment of the explosion, which was preceded by a vertical impact of an unknown flying object into the fuel storage at 5:16 a.m. local time (4:16 a.m. CEST).
In another video you can hear the typical approaching sound of a drone shortly before the explosion. Baza also published recordings of emergency services on site with suspected fragments of the drone in their hands. However, the information cannot currently be independently verified.
The Russian coastal city of Sochi is located on the Black Sea just a few kilometers from the border with the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia, which Russia took away from Georgia’s control through a war in August 2008, in violation of international law. The closest place in Ukraine controlled by Kiev, against which Russia has been waging a war of aggression for more than a year and a half, is around 500 kilometers away as the crow flies.