Diesel facility bursts into flames as Ukrainians strike 125 miles inside Russia

A key fuel facility 125 miles inside Russia has been targeted by Ukrainian troops as they keep up their pressure campaign on Vladimir Putin.

Video footage shows huge flames leaping from the Proletarsk diesel storage site in the Rostov region this morning.

At least five kamikaze drones are thought to have been used by Ukraine in the attack, which sought to damage Russia’s military supply lines.

The blaze was so immense that a fire-fighting train was sent to tackle it.

Russian authorities initially said the strike had been thwarted, and the explosions had been the result of drone debris falling to the ground – a line commonly used to mask direct hits.

Rostov Governor Vasily Golubev said: ‘A drone attack was repelled in the southeast of the Rostov region.

‘Falling fragments set fire to diesel fuel stored at an industrial warehouse in Proletarka.’

Ukraine continues to push further inside Russia on an audacious incursion, which is intended to stop President Putin from claiming parts of Ukraine as part of a peace settlement.

Large fires are visible at the important diesel storage facility in Rostov

It’s the biggest foreign attack on Russia since the Second World War and a major humiliation for Putin two and a half years after he ordered troops to invade.

The incursion has focused on the Kursk oblast, where the Ukrainians earlier targeted a bridge across the Seim river.

Another image has now emerged of damage to a second bridge which Russia had been using to supply units to the area.

The country’s troops will now be forced to use boats or pontoons to evacuate residents and move in military supplies to defend their own land.

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