Putin’s Black Sea holiday resort rocked by huge blasts after ‘kamikaze drone strike’

The fire near the Adler International Airport in the city of Sochi, Russia (Picture: east2west)

A suicide drone targeted a Russian resort where Vladimir Putin has his official summer residence on the Black Sea.

Footage circulating on Telegram showed a fire near the Adler International Airport in the city of Sochi where the 2014 Winter Olympics were held.

Plumes of black smoke can be seen billowing into the sky from a tank, containing ‘1,200 tons of diesel’, in the early hours of this morning.

There were suspicions the city had been targeted for the first time by a Ukrainian kamikaze drone.

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Flames rising from a fuel tank at an oil depot (Picture: e2w)

One account said there was an explosion sounding like a ‘clap of thunder’ before the 5am inferno.

‘One version of what happened is a drone strike. Local residents heard the sound of an explosion around 5 am,’ a source said.

Thick black smoke wafted over Sochi but officials said the fire had not impacted on air traffic at the airport, a major tourist hub.

Dozens of firefighters were called to the scene, and a video shows them fighting the flames.

Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev confirmed the incident and added: ‘More than 60 [firefighters] and 15 pieces of equipment were deployed to the site.

‘There is no threat of fire spreading. The reasons for the incident are being clarified.’

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