Russia has announced that rail deliveries to the Black Sea port of Taman will be restricted until further notice after a fuel depot caught fire near a critical bridge connecting mainland Russia to Crimea.
The announcement was made by Russian Railways on its website, without providing a reason for the restrictions.
Last week, Moscow accused Ukraine of setting fire to an oil depot in Sevastopol in Crimea.
Meanwhile, videos from Taman posted on Russian social media show flames and black smoke billowing over large tanks marked with “Flammable” in red lettering.
However, the fire reports or videos could not be verified independently according to Reuters.
Taman’s oil transhipment hub, situated across the Kerch Strait from Crimea, has the capacity to handle 20 million tonnes of crude oil, oil products, and liquefied petroleum gas annually.
In 2022, the port handled 7.3 million tonnes of oil products from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.
This development comes after the Crimean Bridge, constructed by Russia, was damaged last October in an attack that Russia attributed to Ukraine, and it is yet to be fully restored.
The bridge carries road and rail traffic across the Kerch Strait and the impact of the fire on fuel deliveries through Taman remains unclear.
However, with the bridge still not fully restored, any disruption to Taman’s oil transhipment hub could cause severe problems for Russian fuel deliveries to the Crimean Peninsula.
