A fuel depot caught fire overnight near the Kerch Bridge linking Russia’s mainland with Crimea.
The fire began in the early hours of May 3, 2023, at the Temryuksky fuel depot outside the Port of Taman. The facility is located 8 kilometers (5 miles) southeast of the Russian end of the Crimean Bridge.
Satellite imagery from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)
“In the village of Volna, Temryuk district, a tank with oil products caught fire,” Krasnodar Territory Governor Venamin Kondratiev reported on his Telegram channel. “The fire was assigned the highest rank of difficulty.”
“Now 188 people are fighting the fire. Five fire engines were called in to put out the fire,” Kondratiev added in a later message. No injuries were reported.
Though unconfirmed, local media reported that the fire might have started following a Ukrainian drone strike. This marks the second large fire at a Russian fuel depot in less than a week. On April 29, 2023, a major fire broke out in Sevastopol, the main home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea.
Deadly Russian strikes
Reports emerged early on May 3, 2023, indicating that Russian air strikes had once again targeted Ukrainian cities overnight, marking the third such attack in just one week.
“In total, the invaders used up to 26 [Iranian-made – ed. note] Shahed-136/131 attack drones,” the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported. “The forces and means of the Air Force, in cooperation with the air defense of other components of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, destroyed 21 attack UAVs.”
Ukraine’s capital city, Kyiv, was targeted but Ukraine’s air defense systems intercepted all the loitering munition. Four people were killed in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine, according to the regional administration.