An oil facility in Krasnodar went up in flames after the strike (Picture: East2West)
A huge explosion has rocked an oil refinery in Russia after a suspected Ukrainian drone or sabotage attack.
Footage showed flames and thick noxious black smoke billowing from the factory in the city of Krasnodar.
Vladimir Putin’s famous £1billion clifftop palace – with an underground bunker, pole-dancing boudoir and vineyard – lies just 80 miles to the south-west of the facility on the Black Sea coast.
The major blast comes as Ukraine continues to ramp up its counter-offensive with three villages liberated and one of Putin’s top generals killed in a missile attack this week.
Krasnodar is the capital of the south Russian region of the same name and is linked to the annexed Crimea across the Kerch Strait.
It’s a key link in Putin’s war effort and a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.
More than 130 firefighters were called to the scene of the blaze at Krasnodar Oil Refinery at a diesel processing facility, according to local reports.
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Thick black smoke billowed from the facility (Picture: East2West)
The Krasnodar region also suffered a radio hack this week from anti-Putin partisan group Freedom of Russia Legion.
The message threatened to destroy Putin’s ‘war criminals’ in Crimea but would not pose a threat to the civilian population.
Earlier today, at least three people were killed and 25 wounded after a Russian missile strike hit president Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.
Serhiy Lysak, head of the regional administration, said the strike hit a five-storey residential building early on Tuesday and the area was engulfed in fire.
Vladimir Putin’s palace in Gelendzhik, is only 80 miles away from where the missile hit the oil refinery in Krasnodar (Picture: Navalny/East2West)
He said in a Telegram post that rescue operations were ongoing.
Images from the scene relayed by Mr Zelensky on his Telegram channel showed firefighters battling the fire as charred and damaged vehicles littered the ground.
He wrote on the app: ‘More terrorist missiles. Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people.’
A residential building in Kryvyi Rih was heavily damaged by a Russian missile strike today (Picture: Reuters)
The aerial assault was the latest barrage of strikes by Russian forces that targeted various parts of Ukraine overnight.
The Kyiv military administration reported that the capital came under fire Tuesday but the incoming missiles were destroyed by air defence.
Despite the chances of a decisive Ukrainian victory increasing since the long-awaited counter-offensive was launched, Putin is reportedly refusing to listen to battlefield reports from his generals.
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Footage shows thick black smoke billowing from the facility.