Sawt Falasteen - 'River on fire': Toxic fumes as Ukrainian drones pound Russian oil town

Ukraine, fending off Russia's full-scale offensive launched in 2022, has in the past weeks stepped up its strikes targeting Russian oil infrastructure hubs: refineries, ports and depots.

It calls the campaign fair retribution for the assault that has ravaged swaths of Ukrainian territory, killed tens of thousands of civilians and forced millions to flee their homes.

Ukrainian drones have hit Tuapse's sprawling oil facilities three times over the past two weeks -- most recently overnight from Monday to Tuesday, triggering a local state of emergency as a column of thick smoke rose from the site.

"The water in the river was on fire," Vladimir, a 63-year-old pensioner and Tuapse resident, told AFP as he looked over the grey smoky skyline.

As the wind gusted, toxic fumes and the smell of burnt oil spread through the city, perched on Russia's Black Sea coast.

Roads and pavements were covered with a sticky film.

Residents were told to stay indoors and schools closed in the town of some 60,000.

Officials said Wednesday the level of benzene -- a toxic carcinogen found in petrol -- in the air was elevated.

"Look, look at that," Yevgenia, a pensioner with a shopping bag and wearing a face mask, said, pointing at a layer of black dust and soot on a car nearby.

"It's impossible to clean it all up quickly. They bombed us three times in a month," she said.

Vladimir and Yevgenia did not provide their full names for security reasons.

- Contaminated soil -

The burning oil terminal is located right next to the city centre, close to pedestrian areas and the road to the resort city of Sochi -- a favoured summer escape for the Russian elite, including President Vladimir Putin.

On Tuesday, Putin lashed out at Kyiv, accusing the Ukrainian authorities of resorting to "overt terrorist methods" and intensifying drone strikes "against civilian infrastructure".

"The latest example is the strikes on energy facilities in Tuapse, which could potentially cause serious environmental consequences," Putin said.

Kyiv says it only targets energy and military sites -- designed to hobble Russia's war machine and cast as a legitimate response to Russia's nightly barrages of its cities.

Three people have been killed, including a 14-year-old girl, in the series of Ukrainian attacks on Tuapse in April, local officials said.

Around 600 people were working "around the clock" to mitigate the consequences of the strikes, including an environmental clean-up operation, a regional crisis task force said on Telegram.

It said that "nearly 10,000 cubic metres of oil-contaminated soil and water-oil mixture have been collected from the shore and in the Tuapse River".

For Tuapse residents, the strikes have brought the consequences of Russia's four-year offensive on Ukraine home.

"I've already lived through one war," he said, referring to Russia's wars in Chechnya, a few hundred kilometres across the Caucasus mountains, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"Now here's another one."

M.AbuKhalil--SF-PST