The Kremlin on Monday blamed Ukraine for an attack that started a fire at a gas terminal at the Baltic port of Ust-Luga over the weekend.
A gas facility belonging to Novatek, Russia’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), was set ablaze on Sunday in the western port town, close to Russia’s border with Estonia.
“The Kyiv regime continues to show its bestial face. They are striking civil infrastructure, people,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday when asked about the incident.
The gas terminal is more than 850 kilometres (530 miles) from Ukraine.
The fire was the latest in a series of apparent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s energy facilities. Last week Kyiv claimed responsibility for two other attacks, including one in the same Leningrad region where Ust-Luga is located.
Both Russia and Ukraine are using explosive-laden drones to attempt to strike targets deep behind the frontlines, and their armed forces regularly claim to have shot down enemy devices over their territory.
“The defence ministry and air defence resources are taking all necessary measures to protect from such attacks,” Peskov told reporters in a briefing call on Monday.
Local authorities said there were no injuries as a result of the fire, which had raged Sunday morning, and that all personnel had been evacuated.
The Kremlin also called a strike on the city of Donetsk on Sunday that it said killed at least 27 people an act of “terrorism.”
Artillery fire struck a suburb of the city, which Russia controls and claims to have annexed, hitting a crowded market, local officials said.
“The special military operation will continue in order to protect our people from this danger,” Peskov said Monday, using Moscow’s preferred language to refer to its full-scale military offensive on Ukraine.
