KYIV, Sept 10 (Reuters) – Russian forces attacked a petrol station in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, for the first time, injuring four people, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and the oil company Ukrnafta said on Thursday.
The attack hit a petrol station complex in southwestern Kyiv, sparking a fire, destroying at least one vehicle and causing a fire in a neighbouring building, the emergencies service said.
“There is no military objective in such strikes. This is terror and intimidation of the civilian population,” Ukrnafta CEO Bohdan Kukura said on Facebook.
For nearly two weeks, Kyiv has been under an almost continuous barrage of jet-powered drones targeting warehouses and industrial facilities in the city and its suburbs.
In recent months, Russia has attacked around 300 Ukrainian petrol stations, mostly in frontline eastern regions, in an effort to disrupt logistics for Ukraine’s military.
Russian forces attacked and disabled an oil depot in the Kyiv region in late August.
Ukraine has also targeted Russian fuel logistics with drone strikes on petrol stations, fuel tankers and railway fuel infrastructure in Russian-occupied regions, as well as oil refineries across Russia, causing fuel shortages.
Russian forces almost completely destroyed Ukraine’s major oil depots and fuel storage facilities early in the war, triggering a widespread fuel crisis and forcing the country to overhaul its supply logistics.
(Reporting by Pavel PolityukEditing by Ros Russell)
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