Photo: Moscow Times

MOSCOW, Aug 3, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - An Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at 
an oil depot in Sochi, the Russian resort that hosted the 2014 Winter Olympic 
which is 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the Ukrainian border, authorities 
said Sunday.

Ukraine has regularly hit Russian oil and gas infrastructure in response to 
attacks on its own territory since Russia began its offensive in February 
2022.

"Sochi suffered a drone attack by the Kyiv regime last night," the governor 
of Russia's Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratiev, said on Telegram.

He said drone wreckage hit an "oil tank, which caused a fire" during the 
night-time attack.

Sochi's mayor, Andrei Proshunin, said there were no victims and that the fire 
was put out several hours later.

Images, broadcast by Russian media but whose authenticity AFP could not 
verify, showed flames and a thick plumes of black smoke rising from the site.

Air traffic was briefly suspended at Sochi airport, Russia's air transport 
regulator Rosaviatsia said.

Ukraine authorities have not commented on the fire.

Air strikes on Sochi are relatively rare compared to some other Russian 
cities.

However, Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people there late last month, 
according to local authorities.

- Russian strikes -

Kyiv has said it will intensify its air strikes against Russia in response to 
an increase in Russian attacks on its territory in recent weeks, which have 
killed dozens of civilians.

The Russian defence ministry said meanwhile that three Ukrainian drones had 
been intercepted in the Leningrad region, which includes the Baltic port of 
Saint Petersburg.

Overnight strikes by Russia inside Ukraine also left several people injured, 
authorities said.

One missile wounded seven people in a residential district of Mykolaiv, a 
city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko 
said.

Three other people were injured in the northeastern Kharkiv region, she 
added, while authorities also reported injuries in the Zaporizhzhia and 
Kherson regions in the south.

"The Russians continue to wage war not against Ukrainian forces, but against 
Ukrainian civilians," Svyrydenko said.

Last week, US President Donald Trump gave his Russian counterpart Vladimir 
Putin a 10-day ultimatum, until next Friday, to end the conflict in Ukraine.

The air strikes and fighting have not abated, however, and the Kremlin has 
rejected the idea of a lasting ceasefire in Ukraine, which it sees as a gift 
to Kyiv's troops.