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Ukraine strikes port of Taganrog

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Also hits Bryansk region with drones

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Ukraine says it struck an oil depot in Bryansk

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Druzhba and BPS pipelines run through Bryansk

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Unclear what missiles were used on Taganrog

(Rewrites headline and first paragraph, adds Ukrainian

statement, details on attack)

MOSCOW, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine struck a southern

Russian port on the Azov Sea with missiles and triggered a fire

at an oil depot in the Bryansk region of western Russia with

drones, according to officials and media reports.

The extent of the damage and the exact weapons used in the

attack was unclear, though Russia has repeatedly cautioned that

Ukraine's use of U.S. ATACMS to strike sovereign Russian

territory risks triggering a wider war.

Russia's defence ministry said its air defence units

destroyed 14 Ukrainian drones overnight over the Bryansk region

that borders Ukraine. It did not say what was hit.

Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said on his Telegram

channel that a production facility caught a short-lived fire as

result of the attack. He did not say what facility was damaged.

Ukraine's military said it had caused a "massive fire" at an

oil depot with a strike on the Bryansk region.

The Soviet-built Druzhba oil pipeline, which pumps oil from

the fields in Western Siberia and the Caspian Sea to the markets

of Europe, runs through the Bryansk region, as does the Baltic

Pipeline System (BPS) which runs to the Baltic Sea.

Reuters was unable to verify if any oil infrastructure had

been hit. The ASTRA Telegram channel said a refinery had been

hit and showed flames leaping into the sky.

About 750 km (465 miles) south, the Russian port of Taganrog

was hit by missiles from Ukraine, damaging an industrial

facility and numerous cars, the acting governor of Rostov region

said.

"According to preliminary information, no one was hurt,"

Yuri Slyusar said on the Telegram messaging app.

Slyusar said 14 cars had caught fire, but he did not

disclose details on what else was hit or how big the attack was.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

FINAL PHASE?

Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands

of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in

relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban

Missile Crisis.

The war is entering what some Russian and Western officials

say could be its final and most dangerous phase as Moscow's

forces advance at their fastest pace since the early weeks of

the conflict and the West ponders how the war will end.

The conflict in eastern Ukraine began in 2014 after a

pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution

and Russia annexed Crimea, with Russian-backed separatist forces

fighting Ukraine's armed forces.

Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles in November to strike into

Russia, taking advantage of newly granted permission from the

administration of outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden.

Days later, Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range

ballistic missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

Since then, Russia reported it had shot down at least 15

ATACMS missiles. President Vladimir Putin said Kyiv's use of

Western-made missiles represented direct involvement of the West

in an armed conflict with Russia.

The damaged area of Taganrog, a city of about a quarter of a

million people on Russia's Black Sea coast and not far from the

border with Ukraine, has been cordoned off by police, Svetlana

Kambulova, the head of the city, said on Telegram.

The attack partially damaged a boiler building, cutting off

heat to 27 apartment buildings, Kambulova said.

Russia has an air base near the city, from which military

analysts say Russia's air force operates drones, bombers and

other weapons to attack Ukraine.