The cloud already covered Maykop, Stavropol, and Armavir and
was approaching Budyonnovsk, which lies more than 400 kilometers from Tuapse.
Meteorological radar imagery is not typically used to identify ground events
because of its low resolution, but the fire at the Tuapse oil depot has been so
large its effects were visible even to equipment not intended for that purpose.
Local authorities in Tuapse ordered evacuations for residents of Koshkina and Pushkina streets and nearby areas. Water service was cut to more than 30 streets, and the governor of Krasnodar Krai traveled to the city. Dictator Vladimir Putin instructed Russia’s emergencies minister, Alexander Kurenkov, to go to Tuapse.
Earlier the same day, Ukraine’s General Staff confirmed another drone strike on the Tuapse oil refinery. RFE/RL journalist Mark Krutov, satellite imagery analysis, said four of the refinery’s largest storage tanks were hit.
This is the third major attack on the facility in the past
month; satellite data indicated large fires at the refinery on April 16 and
April 20 as well.