Emergency crews were battling a forest fire in the southern Krasnodar region on Thursday after a Ukrainian drone crashed in a wooded area near the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik.
Authorities in Krasnodar said debris from a drone downed by air defense systems sparked fires in three separate spots near the village of Krinitsa, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) east of the mansion widely known as “Putin’s Palace.”
By Thursday afternoon, the fire had spread to 17 hectares (42 acres), requiring more than 100 emergency personnel, 27 vehicles and a Beriev Be-200 firefighting aircraft. Emergency officials said a boat brought 23 vacationers trapped by smoke to safety.
Separately, a blaze caused by a drone strike on the Afipsky oil refinery was extinguished around 8:20 a.m. local time. The refinery, which processes around 6 million metric tons of crude annually, has been targeted multiple times since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, most recently in early August.
No injuries or deaths were reported in either of the drone attacks.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 18 of the 102 drones Ukraine launched overnight at the Krasnodar region.
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