(Reuters) – A Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire to break out at an oil reservoir for Russia’s Druzhba pipeline in the Tambov region southeast of Moscow on Friday, but the blaze was extinguished within hours, news agencies cited local authorities as saying.
Regional Governor Maksim Yegorov earlier reported a fire at a fuel depot in which he said no one was hurt.
Ukraine has stepped up a campaign of strikes on Russian oil reservoirs, having previous hit a number of refineries in attacks that caused significant disruption.
Ukraine says the strikes are aimed at infrastructure that is supporting Moscow’s war effort. Russia has frequently attacked Ukrainian power plants and its electricity grid throughout the war that is now well into its third year.
The Druzhba pipeline is one of the largest parts of Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft’s system. It starts in central Russia and connects West Siberian oilfields to major refineries in Europe.
Druzhba is capable of carrying 2 million barrels per day but flows dropped sharply after the EU stopped buying Russian oil following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The northern leg of Druzhba, which runs to Germany via Belarus and Poland, is now used for exports by Kazakhstan’s KEBCO to the Schwedt refinery which supplies most of Berlin’s fuel.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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