Kyiv: Two large explosions lit up the night sky of Ukraine on Sunday early morning after an oil depot in Vasylkiv caught fire and the Russian forces blew up a gas pipeline.
According to CNN, the explosions were reported to have been around Vasylkiv, which has a large military airfield and multiple fuel tanks and is about about 30 kilometers south of Kyiv. A natural gas pipeline was also blown up in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, during a Russian attack, the Ukrainian state service of special communications said.
The government has warned that smoke from the explosion could cause an “environmental catastrophe” and advised people to cover their windows with damp cloth or gauze, The Guardian reported.
Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the the Ministry of Internal Affairs, said on Telegram, “The missile attack was carried out on the Vasilkovskaya oil depot of the KLO company. Rescuers have already left for the scene of the tragedy. Most likely, there were no casualties. It will burn for a long time. The environmental damage will be colossal.”
Following the explosions, in a Facebook post, Vasylkiv Mayor Natalia Balasynovych said, “You can see what is going on, you can see the fire — unfortunately, this is the petroleum storage depot in Kriachky village. The enemy wants to destroy everything around, but he will not be successful. You’ve seen that during the day there was heavy shelling from ballistic missiles. Our airfield was shelled as well, but we got it, it’s under control of Ukraine.
“The night will be difficult here, as well as in Kyiv, but we will stand our ground and we will win, because God is with us.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian State Emergency has said a woman was killed when a nine-storey residential building in the eastern city of Kharkiv was hit by “enemy artillery” on Saturday night.
Earlier, a six-year-old boy was also killed and several injured during heavy gunfire in a western district of Kyiv, CNN quoted a local hospital as saying. A Ukrainian company in charge of building and maintaining roads, Ukravtodor said in a Facebook update, “We dismantle road signs on all roads of the country. Priority 1 – indicative signs, names of settlements. Collected signs are handed over to the local authorities and the passengers.
“The enemy has a miserable connection, they don’t orientate in the area. Let’s help them go straight to hell. “Ukravtodor urges all road organizations, territorial communities, local government authorities to immediately start dismantling nearby road signs.”
Earlier, YouTube blocked Russian state media outlet RT from Ukraine and also suspended its ability to monetise its content on the platform. To counter the cyber attacks by Russia, Ukraine Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov in a tweet announced the forming of an IT army.
“We are creating an IT army. We need digital talents…We continue to fight on the cyber front. The first task is on the channel for cyber specialists.”Â
