On Tuesday morning, reports came in that an oil storage tank had exploded near Kursk city in the Bryansk region of Russia. Roman Starovoyt, the Governor of Kursk, had blamed the attack on a Ukrainian drone, but Ukraine has not taken responsibility for the strike.
The Russian news outlet Baza reported that two drones “fell and exploded three meters from diesel fuel tanks.”
The media organisation said: “At this point, the five-ton tanks were empty and a serious fire was avoided.”
However, the explosion of the oil storage rank near an airbase did cause some fire, as video footage published on social media showed the area covered in thick black smoke.
Kursk’s Governor, Mr Starovoyt, said there were no casualties but that fighters had been tackling a 500 square-meter blaze.
On Mr Starovoyton’s Telegram channel, said: “The fire is localised. All emergency services working at the site.”
On Tuesday afternoon, it was confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met with his Security Council to ensure discuss Russia’s “domestic security” after the drone strike.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s official spokesman, said, officials were taking “necessary” measures to protect Russia from Ukrainian attacks.
When asked how the drone strikes by reporters, Mr Peskov said: “Of course, the line openly declared by the Ukrainian regime to continue such terrorist acts is a danger factor.”
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The drone strike on Tuesday is the second drone attack in Russia this week, as Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that Ukrainian drones had attacked two airbases on Monday.
Russia’s Defense Ministry also reported that the drone strikes killed three servicemen while wounding four other men in south-central Russia.
The drone strikes are significant as they would be the farthest into Russian territory Ukraine has managed to attack since the war began.
The attacks took place at the Engels-2 and Dyagilevo airbases in Saratov and Ryazan, which caused two aircrafts to be damaged
Ukraine has also not claimed responsibility for the attack, however, a senior Ukrainian official spoke to the New York Times and said the drone attack had been launched from Ukraine’s territory.
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Britain’s Ministry of Defense said that if the Ukraine drone strike were proved to be deliberated, President Putin would regard Russia’s air defences as “some of the most strategically significant failures of force protection since its invasion of Ukraine.”
The intelligence agency added: “The Russian chain of command will probably seek to identify and impose severe sanctions on Russian officers deemed responsible for allowing the incident.”
Both airbases stuck on Monday contain Russia’s long-range bomber fleet, which has played a central role in taking out Ukraine’s power grid in the current drone campaign Russia has launched against Ukraine for the last eight weeks.
Serhiy Zgurets, a Ukrainian military analyst, has said the air bases hit were the only facilities in Russia that could fully service the bombers in order to carry out attacks on Ukraine.
He wrote for a Ukrainian media website: “It is still too early to say what is at issue here, but the ability of the armed forces of Ukraine to reach military targets deep in the territory of the Russian Federation has a very symbolic and important meaning.”