Explosion from drone or sabotage strike at Russian oil refinery

A Russian oil refinery less than 80 miles from Vladimir Putin’s iron-clad Black Sea palace was rocked by a major explosion on Tuesday in a suspected drone or sabotage attack.

Flames and thick, noxious black smoke poured out of the oil refinery in Krasnodar following the alleged attack, which comes as Ukraine escalates its counteroffensive operation.

The blaze ravaged the Krasnodar Oil Refinery, in a diesel processing facility, requiring over 130 firefighters to combat the aggressive flames, local Kuban News reported.

Krasnodar, the capital of a region by the same name, is linked to annexed Crimea across the Kerch Strait.

The city is a key component of Putin’s war effort and serves as a hub for supplying occupied Crimea.

It also sits not far from Putin’s billion-dollar compound on the shores of the Black Sea in the resort town of Gelendzhik.

Dubbed “Putin’s Palace,” the lavish 190,000-square-foot residence is equipped with a hockey rink, wine cellar, hookah lounge, casino, a stripper pole, church, and a fortified, dual-tunnel bunker that could protect the Russian leader should catastrophe strike.

Putin and pals could survive for weeks at a time inside the home’s bunker, located less than 80 miles from the powerful blast on Monday.

The Krasnodar region also suffered a radio hack Monday from the anti-Putin partisan group Freedom of Russia Legion. While interrupting the broadcast, a representative of the group spoke of plans to seize Crimea, promising to destroy “war criminals,” according to a Telegram channel “Caution, news.”

Meanwhile, a missile strike over 400 miles away on the southern Zaporizhzhia front allegedly killed a top Russian general on Monday, according to state media.

“As a result of an enemy missile attack, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army, Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev, was killed,” one of Russia’s proxy leaders in the region Voenkor said.

Pro-Kremlin war reporter YuryKotyonok also shared the news of Goryachev’s death, which fell on Russia Day, the country’s national holiday.

“War takes away the best,” Kotyonok wrote on Telegram on Tuesday. “The army today lost one of the brightest and most effective military leaders, who combined the highest professionalism with personal courage.”

Goryachev is the 10th Russian General to be killed in the war, according to independent Russian media.

The Zaporizhzhia region, which is largely controlled by Russian forces, is believed to be one of the main focuses of Ukraine’s counter-strike.