Another kamikaze drone strike 170 miles behind Putin’s lines sends smoke thousands of feet into sky near Crimea bridge

A MASSIVE explosion has ripped through a Russian oil storage facility after it was hit in a suspected Ukrainian kamikaze drone attack. The attack, 170 miles behind Russian lines, sent smoke thousands of feet into the air near to Vladimir Putin’s prized bridge linking Russia to Crimea, which he annexed in 2014. An oil storage depot in flames after being hit in a suspected Ukrainian drone attackEast2West East2WestThe inferno sent smoke thousands of feet into the air[/caption] East2WestThe moment the storage facility was hit around 2am[/caption] The attack comes just days after Ukrainian forces were believed to have hit an oil depot in Crimea itself. The inferno at the port of Taman covered almost 13,000 square feet and almost 85 firefighters were tackling the blaze.  One witness said the attack came at 2am after “there was a sound of hissing in the air, and a drone trace in the sky”. The strike was only six miles from the Kerch Bridge built by linking Russia’s Krasnodar region to Crimea, which he annexed in 2014.  Pro-Kremlin Russian news outlet Readovka said a drone strike was suspected – despite the site being some 170 miles from the nearest Ukraine-held territory. Eyewitnesses told Readovka they heard two explosions during the night, and then the fire started. Krasnodar regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said: “A tank with oil products caught fire.  “The fire was assigned the highest rank of difficulty. According to preliminary information, there are no victims or injured.” The attack is the latest in a rising tide of apparent strikes by Ukraine on Russian territory in the war. Ukraine never publicly claims responsibility for attacks in Russia and on Russian-controlled territory. But its intelligence chief Major-General Kyrylo Budanov has previously hinted that its forces are behind incidents in Russia. He said: “Much of this is no accident. Something is constantly on fire.” The latest attack comes after footage from Saturday showed the sky turning black over the Russian-occupied city of Sevastopol as the smoke rose from the enormous blaze. The mushroom-cloud-like smoke plume could be seen for miles around after two huge explosions ripped through Cossack Bay. The blasts came at 4:20am and 4:21am local time – and up to seven fuel tanks are believed to have gone up in flames. It appears to be the latest attempt by Ukraine to strike at Russia’s naval firepower base in the annexed peninsula.  Ukraine wants to retake the Crimean Peninsula which was seized by Vladimir Putin nine years ago. Military experts had previously suggested the long-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive could be focused on the region. It comes after a suspected “kamikaze drone” was found crashed near Moscow – as Ukraine’s ambitions to hit back at the Russians appears to becoming more bold. Some Russian sources said it could have been a sea drone attack, but others said it was an aerial strike.  Russia invaded Ukraine last February – a conflict which has devolved into a grinding, brutal war. It is believed some 188,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in Putin’s botched invasion. And millions of Ukrainian civilians have endured untold misery as the Russians stole their homes and left cities devastated. Despite the bloodshed, Kyiv is still standing strong against the Russians with backing from the West. The world is now awaiting to see if Ukraine will mount its long expected counter offensive, with much of the fiercest fighting currently centred around the city of Bakhmut. The sky turned black over Crimea – which has been occupied by the Russians since 2014 The suspected drone strike blew up a fuel depot in Cossack Bay