Strike on SOCAR oil depot damages Odesa region's environment by 94 million

Experts from the State Environmental Inspectorate of the Southwestern District have assessed the environmental damage caused by the Russian Federation's attack on the oil depot of the Azerbaijani company SOCAR in Odesa region.

According to the press service of the inspection, the amount of damage to the environment is over 94.5 million hryvnias.

This refers to the attack on August 18. The shelling damaged oil product warehouses of an Azerbaijani company and private homes. State inspectors of the Southwestern District conducted a survey of the area and recorded the contamination of 3,590 square meters of land. The information was forwarded to the Operational Headquarters of the State Environmental Inspectorate of Ukraine to be included in the unified register of damage caused by armed aggression.

PHOTO: State Ecological Inspectorate of the South-Western District

SOCAR has confirmed that on the night of August 18, Russian drone attacks in Odesa region damaged its infrastructure. It was a series of direct hits, followed by a fire. All the tanks, the pumping station building, operator's and weighing and technical rooms were damaged, and the fence was destroyed. The storage capacity of this oil depot is over 16 thousand cubic meters.

It was the second massive attack on the company's tank farms in Odesa Oblast in 10 days. Prior to that, on August 8, the Russians launched about 10 UAVs at the same tank farm, which caused partial destruction. Criminal proceedings were initiated over the incident. Two days after the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev had a telephone conversation, and on August 11, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree to allocate $2 million for humanitarian aid to Ukraine.

An attack by Russian drones on the night of August 18 leads to a fire, which was extinguished by a robot and a Ukrzaliznytsia fire train. More than 100 rescuers, volunteers, firefighters from the National Guard of Ukraine and local fire brigades were responding to the attack. The attack also set fire to a two-story residential building, which, according to the State Emergency Service, was unoccupied.

Кирило Бойко