EAn oil depot in the Russian border region of Belgorod caught fire after Saturday’s bombardment. “We’re being shot at again. One of the shells hit the oil depot in the Belgorod region,” said local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. The emergency services are on site, there is “no risk” that the fire will spread, it said. A photo released by the governor showed flames and plumes of black smoke billowing over a building. The information could not initially be independently verified.
The state news agency Tass quoted a source from the emergency services, according to which the depot is located in the village of Razumnoye near the city of Belgorod. Last week Russia reported increased attacks in the border area with Ukraine. The Belgorod region was particularly affected. On Friday, a power plant was hit in the region’s capital of the same name, causing power outages.
Supplies for the Russian troops who are supposed to conquer the Donbass run through the big city. The Ukrainian city of Kharkiv is also frequently shelled from the Belgorod region. Therefore, in recent months there have been several explosions in ammunition or fuel depots, which were more or less clearly caused by Ukrainian attacks. Most recently, a rocket part caused damage to a residential building in Belgorod on Thursday. It could also have been the remains of a Russian anti-aircraft missile. Russia has repeatedly blamed Ukraine for destruction in the Belgorod region.
Tech billionaire Musk wants to continue giving money for satellite internet
As recently as Friday, tech billionaire Elon Musk threatened to stop funding his aerospace company SpaceX’s satellite internet for Ukraine. Now the turnaround. “Never mind…even if Starlink still loses money and other companies get billions in taxpayers’ money, we will continue to fund Ukraine for free,” he wrote on Twitter.
For the Ukrainian troops, the use of the Starlink satellite Internet service is indispensable in the fight against Russia. The service serves as a means of communication for both civilians and the Ukrainian military where there is no longer access to mobile communications and the Internet due to destroyed infrastructure.
Moscow speaks of a terrorist attack on military premises
Moscow blamed two citizens of a CIS country for the incident at the military base in south-west Russia, which left many dead and injured. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a loose association of former Soviet states. The two shooters are said to have been killed. It is said to have been a terrorist attack during the training of recruits for the Ukraine war. Like many other statements from the war zone, this cannot be verified. After the partial mobilization announced almost a month ago, protests erupted and hundreds of thousands of Russians fled their homeland. But there was also direct resistance to the mobilization.
Zelenskyj praises US for new military aid
Zelenskyj called the new military aid from the USA with a volume of up to 725 million dollars (745.6 million euros) “very necessary”. His country became the target of new Russian attacks on Saturday. “Some of the missiles and drones were shot down. But unfortunately not all of them,” said the head of state in his video address. “We are doing everything we can to shoot down more enemy missiles and drones. (…) The day will surely come when our state can fulfill this task 100 percent.”
“In general, we do everything in the east and south to give the occupiers the feeling that they have no perspective,” Zelenskyj said. Sunday marks the 235th day since the start of the February 24 Russian invasion of the neighboring country.
