Russia has alleged that two Ukrainian military helicopters flew across the border and bombed a fuel depot in the eastern city of Belgorod.
Video images of the reported attack posted online on Friday showed missiles being fired from low altitude, followed by an explosion that sparked a huge fire at the oil depot. It was not possible to independently verify the images.
#BREAKING: Video reportedly of Ukrainian attack helicopters striking oil facility in Belgorod, across the border inside Russia pic.twitter.com/NfQVJ97rbA
— ELINT News (@ELINTNews) April 1, 2022
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the alleged strike in Belgorod, some 35 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, did not create comfortable conditions to continue peace talks.
Regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram that the helicopters hit the storage facility after crossing into Russia at low altitude.
“There was a fire at the petrol depot because of an air strike carried out by two Ukrainian army helicopters, which entered Russian territory at a low altitude,” he wrote in the messaging app.
Security camera footage of the depot showed a flash of light from what appeared to be a rocket fired from a low altitude in the sky, followed by an explosion on the ground.
Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that at around 05:00 Moscow time (02:00 GMT) two Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopters entered Russian airspace at extremely low altitude and "launched a missile attack on a civilian oil storage facility" on the outskirts of Belgorod. Some storage tanks were damaged and caught fire, he said.
"The oil storage facility has nothing to do with the Russian armed forces," he said.
Ukraine’s top security official denied that Ukraine carried out the alleged attack.
Speaking on national television on Friday, Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said: “For some reason they say that we did it, but according to our information this does not correspond to reality.”
Earlier, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said: “I can neither confirm nor reject the claim that Ukraine was involved in this simply because I do not possess all the military information.”
Belgorod lies around 80 kilometres from the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, which has been under a heavy siege by Russian forces. Belgorod has served as a logistics hub for Russian troops fighting in nearby eastern Ukraine.
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