Major Fire Hits Crimea Oil Depot After Reported Drone Attacks

A large fire engulfed an oil depot in the occupied city of Simferopol early on Nov. 6, following reports of explosions and the sound of drones over the area, according to Telegram channels.

The blaze reportedly started at around 2:30 a.m. local time. The Telegram channel Crimean Wind, which tracks military activity on the peninsula, said that its subscribers from the Simferopol district were reporting “a strong glow” and the smell of burning fuel shortly after a series of loud detonations.

“The fire began at around 02:30. Before that, drones were flying overhead,” the channel wrote, adding that residents believe the target was the Krymnaftozbut oil storage facility near the village of Bitumne.

Earlier in the night, the same channel reported multiple explosions “audible even on the southern coast of Crimea,” suggesting the blasts were strong enough to carry across significant distances.

Local accounts also pointed to simultaneous incidents in several locations. “Something is burning in Hvardiiske and in the area of the Simferopol thermal power plant,” one update read shortly after 2 a.m.

Ukraine has not officially commented on its possible involvement in the reported attack.

On Tuesday, Kyiv Post reported that a Russian Albatros-M class anti-submarine ship belonging to the Black Sea Fleet reportedly caught fire in Sevastopol, according to the Telegram channel Crimean Wind, which published photos and videos from the scene.

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The footage, recorded at the Sukharnaya Bay pier, shows thick smoke rising from a moored vessel concealed under camouflage nets. Initially, the type of the ship could not be confirmed, but followers of the channel later identified it as a Project 1124-M “Albatros-M” small anti-submarine ship.

According to Crimean Wind, the Black Sea Fleet currently operates four such vessels built between 1982 and 1989 – Muromets, Suzdalets, Kasimov, and Yeysk. Two of them were reportedly evacuated to the Novorossiysk naval base in 2024, while the remaining two stayed in Sevastopol. The specific ship that caught fire has not yet been officially confirmed.