Ukraine Drone Strikes Ignite Carcinogenic Blaze at Russian Refinery
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- Ukraine is intensifying drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, hitting a key Black Sea refinery four times in two weeks
- The repeated strikes set off a days-long carcinogenic blaze at the refinery, with poisonous black rain falling across Russia
- Environmentalists characterized the incident as one of Russia's worst ecological disasters since the fall of the Soviet Union
- The Washington Post reported the story, with reporting by Natalia Abbakumova and Catherine Belton
Why it matters: A single refinery hit four times in two weeks signals Ukraine is systematically degrading Russia's energy infrastructure, but the carcinogenic fallout and environmentalist warnings about a Soviet-era-scale disaster show the strikes are producing cross-border ecological damage that extends well beyond their military target.
