Crimea fuel depot on fire, Russian-held towns shelled in Ukraine

A huge fire erupted in Moscow-annexed Crimea after a suspected drone attack hit an oil depot, as fighting intensified on the southern Ukrainian front and shelling deprived Russian border villages of power.

The attacks on Saturday came one day after Kiev said preparations for a long-awaited counteroffensive were nearly complete, having vowed to expel Russian forces from territory they seized in the east and south following their 2022 invasion.

On Friday, a Russian strike on a block of flats in the central Ukrainian city of Uman killed 23 people, including a baby boy.

On Saturday, officials in Moscow-controlled Crimea, towns under Russian occupation in southern Ukraine reported attacks.

The governor of a Russian region near the border with Ukraine also said two people were killed when a Ukrainian missile hit a village.

"As a result of the strike inflicted by Ukrainian nationalists, unfortunately, two civilians were killed," Alexander Bogomaz, governor of Bryansk oblast, said in a message posted on Telegram, reporting an attack on Suzemka.

Fears of Ukrainian reprisals more than a year into Moscow's offensive have grown in Russia, where a range of cities have cancelled traditional May 9 celebrations to mark the Soviet victory over the Nazis at the end of World War II in 1945.

In Sevastopol, home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet, clouds of smoke rose high into the sky as fuel reserves burned.

The Crimean port city has been hit by a series of drone attacks since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine began more than a year ago. 

Russian-installed authorities said the fire was caused by a suspected drone but sought to play down the incident, amid rising security fears on the peninsula.

The Kremlin said nothing about...