UKRAINE blasted two Russian oil depots in a massive strike with eight powerful Neptune missiles and kamikaze drones.
Raging flames could be seen as oil tanks were blown up at the sites key to supplying Vladimir Putin's brutal war machine.
Ukraine reportedly used kamikaze drones and eight Neptune missiles - the weapons used to sink the Russian flagship the Moskava - in the blitz on Temryuk and Port Kavakaz.
Massive flames and towering pillars of black smoke could been since rising from the two oil facilities.
Two employees were reportedly injured in the strike.
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It came as elsewhere Putin launched strikes on civilians in besieged Kharkiv.
And meanwhile, deep inside Russia a building was burned down on Putin's palace compound in Siberia.
Putin's war continues to roll on as Ukraine finds itself often outnumbered and outgunned by Russia.
US officials however last night greenlit Kyiv to use American weapons inside Russia.
It is hoped this will be game-changing as it will allow Ukraine to better fight back against Putin.
Krasnodar regional Veniamin Kondratyev said: “As a result of the air strike, the infrastructure of the oil depot was damaged.
“The fire is being extinguished now.
“The fire has been assigned a high category of complexity.”
In the devastating attack at Port Kavkaz, another oil depot as well as port facilities was hit and ignited in flames.
The site in the Kerch Strait is close to Putin’s £3 billion 12-mile road and rail Crimean Bridge, linking the occupied Black Sea peninsula to Russia.
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Early reports indicated multiple casualties.
Eight such Neptune missiles were used to strike a ferry crossing and oil terminal in Port Kavkaz, according to Ukrainian journalist Andrey Tsaplienko.
“Everyone reached the target at about 2am. The latest Russian air defence systems could not do anything,” he said.
The use of Neptune missiles was confirmed by the Ukrainian general staff.
“Several Ukrainian-made missiles from the Neptune coastal missile system were fired at the oil terminal near Port Kavkaz,” said a statement.
Drones were used at the Temryuk oil terminal.
“‘Modern’ and ‘effective’ Russian air defence was once again powerless against our missiles and unmanned systems and failed to protect important facilities used for logistics and supplies for the Russian army,” said the Ukrainian general staff.
“This depot [in Port Kavkaz] supplied fuel to the Russian army in Crimea and in the occupied territories of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions,” reported RBC-Ukraine.
A night earlier, seven Russian boats - including two ferries used for military transportation - were damaged in missile strikes.
Traffic on the giant crossing was halted amid the barrage of attacks from Ukraine.
And Kazan - deep inside Russia on the Volga Rover - was also buzzed by a Ukrainian drone.
An explosion was reported in the vicinity of the Kazanorgsintez chemical plant.
Ukraine is engaged in a campaign to denude Russia’s oil refining and supplying capacity and has hit dozens of plants in 2024.
Russia continued its bombardment of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second city.
Three people were killed and 16 were injured. Two children were among the victims.
The latest attacks of the war came as Politico reported President Joe Biden had secretly approved strikes by Ukraine with US weapons on targets inside Russia.
Britain had already permitted such strikes with its Storm Shadow missiles.
Some 14 Western countries have now approved such strikes which are seen in Russia as proof of Nato being involved in the war.
Port Kavkaz is the fifth port in Russia for cargo turnover and the second port in the Black Sea-Azov basin after Novorossiys.
