Russian's Bryansk Oil Depot Near Ukraine Border Catches Fire

Bryansk is an administrative center 154 km northeast of the Ukrainian border

A large broke out early on today at an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Bryansk, the emergency ministry said, adding that no one was injured. 

Russian officials on Thursday said Ukrainian helicopters had hit residential buildings and injured seven people in the Bryansk region, the latest of a series of cross - border attacks that Moscow has said may trigger a retaliatory attack on Kyiv. 

The governor of the Belgorod region said villages there were also attacked and one person had been injured. 

Ukraine's defence ministry, which has declined to comment on several border incidents including a strike on a fuel depot in the city of Belgorod earlier this month, did not immediately respond to a respect for comment on Thursday. 

In a statement, the ministry said the fire took place at a facility owned by oil pipeline company Transnet at 2 a.m. Moscow time (2300 GMT), and there had been no need to evacuate any parts of the city of 400,000 people. 

Bryansk is an administrative centre 154 km (96 miles) northeast of the Ukrainian border, near the Sumy and Chernihiv regions, and is about 380 km (236 miles) distant from Moscow, the Russian capital. Moscow calls it actions in Ukraine, now entering their third month, a special military operation. 

The Ukrainian government’s Center for Countering Disinformation accused Russia's intelligence services of implementing "a plan to carry out terrorist acts to whip up anti - Ukrainian hysteria" in Russia, according to a statement. "Moving at low altitude, they carried out a least six air strikes on residential buildings in the village of Kalimovo," it said. Six buildings were damaged and seven people were injured, the statement said. 

Bryansk regional authorities closed schools for fear of further strikes. Vehicles were damaged when a border post came under mortar fire from Ukraine near Kalimovo on Wednesday. 

Russian defence ministry said on Wednesday the continuation of "sabotage and attacks" by Ukrainian forces could prompt attacks on the capital Kyiv. "If such incidents continue, then consequence from the armed forces of the Russian Federation will be attack on decision making centres, including in Kyiv, which the Russian army has refrained from to date," the defence ministry said.