Ukraine has inflicted its second major oil depot fire in Russia’s Rostov region in the space of a month.

Knewz.com has learned the Russian authorities have since admitted the facility is connected to its military, before claiming its air defense systems downed four drones.

The blaze, which was triggered in the early hours of Wednesday, August 28, drew remarks from the regional Governor Vasily Golubev.

He took to Telegram saying: 

“In the Kamensky district, a fire occurred at a fuel depot as a result of a UAV attack. There were no casualties. Emergency response forces are involved in the firefighting effort. There is no threat of fire spreading to residential buildings.”

Civilian footage of the event, however, depicted an awing column of thick black smoke billowing above the stricken plant and towering high into the sky.

The media outlet, Astra, relayed local accounts stating that said facility was the state-owned Atlas fuel depot.

“According to local residents, the Atlas plant of Rosrezerv is on fire after a drone attack in the Kamensky district of the Rostov region,” the publication wrote on its Telegram channel.

“Since the start of operation, the Atlas plant has specialized in storing petroleum products, local media reported,” It said.

As a nod to the latter, the Russian Gazeta Zemlya reported in 2023: 

“The plant also supplies petroleum products to the Russian army, journalists say.”

“In August 2020, joint exercises of the Ministry of Defense and Rosrezerv took place at the plant as part of the Caucasus-2020 exercises.” 

“In demonstration exercises for the supply of petroleum products for the needs of the army, three methods were tested - road, rail, and pipeline.”

 This incident is the second to befall a Russian gas facility in the space of a month.

The last time it happened, on August 18, Governor Gubelov noted that the fire broke out at the “industrial warehouses in Proletarsk.”

Two days later the blaze was still going and given the number of emergency workers it put in the hospital (13), the firemen were losing the fight.

As a testimony to the latter, two priests set up shop nearby and interceded to an authority higher than Vladimir Putin for the daunted personnel. 

At the same time, reports were leaked indicating 22 oil storage tanks were ablaze and that 520 emergency workers were on the scene. 

This attack, since dubbed Ukraine’s largest success of the war, was been followed by days of Russian bombardments on the defending state—comprising no less than 300 projectiles.

So intense were these volleys, that the Volodymyr Zelensky drew on his prized F-16 fighter jets for the first time.

NATO’s second most advanced military aircraft were said to have shot down five cruise missiles and 60 drones.

Zelensky lauded his troops and the effect of his new arsenal but repeated his calls for permission to use the F-16s on Russian soil.

“We thank our partners for providing us with the F-16s. Of course, this is not enough, we don't have many of them, and we still need to train pilots,” Zelensky said.

“There should be no restrictions on the range of weapons for Ukraine while Russia uses all kinds of its own weapons, as well as Shahed drones and ballistic missiles from North Korea.”

“The US, UK, France, and other partners have the power to help us stop terror. We need decisions,” he declared.