Two persons have died as a result of an oil pipeline fire in the Orenburg area of Russia, the TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday.
Though specifics are still unknown, the regional prosecutor’s office has started an investigation to find out what caused the fire.
On Monday, rumors of the fire started circulating on Russian Telegram groups without official confirmation. However, the TASS announcement led to the official confirmation of the tragedy.
A Russian regional governor reported that a Ukrainian drone had previously struck and set a gas station on fire on June 28, hundreds of kilometers away from the border.
The Tambov region’s governor, Maxim Yegorov, stated that the strike occurred at 4:35 a.m. (0135 GMT).
“A small fire broke out and it has been contained,” he said on messaging app Telegram. “There are no victims”.
Russia’s defence ministry, meanwhile, said it had “intercepted” 25 Ukrainian drones overnight, without mentioning the Tambov region.
In the western Bryansk region, governor Alexander Bogomov said a drone had been downed but its debris “partially destroyed the roof of an administrative building”.
