Local authorities initially reported that air defense systems had shot down the UAV, but later admitted that a fuel storage facility had caught fire.
On September 17, a fire broke out at an oil depot in the Oryol region of Russia as a result of a drone attack. According to the Russian media outlet Baza, a gasoline tank caught fire at the facility.
The information was confirmed by the governor of the region, Andriy Klychkov. At first, he said that air defense had shot it down, but then wrote that at 03:50 the drone had crashed into a non-residential building in the Zaliznychnyi district, after which special services began to take “necessary measures.” According to preliminary reports, there were no casualties.
Later, Klitschko said that the fire had been extinguished, but he did not report on the scale of the fire or the extent of damage to the facility.
“Regarding the incident that occurred at 3:50 a.m., I would like to additionally inform you that the open burning of a fuel tank on the territory of an industrial facility in the Railway District of Oryol has been completely eliminated, and there are no victims,” the Russian official wrote.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not yet commented on the incident, but at the request of the Izvestia media outlet, the Ministry of Emergency Situations said that the oil depot caught fire as a result of a strike by the Ukrainian armed forces.
