Ukraine has said it has destroyed a facility inside Russia where Iranian drones were being readied for Moscow’s war effort.
Ukraine’s General Staff said that it had successfully attacked the protected facility on December 26 in the Oryol region, around 200 miles southwest of Moscow and roughly 130 miles from Ukraine.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment by email.
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Why It Matters
Kyiv has targeted Russian facilities that make the Iranian-designed Shahed or “kamikaze” drones that Moscow have used to bombard Ukraine.
Ukrainian military intelligence said on December 23 that a Shahed-136 drone warehouse 800 miles from the border with Ukraine in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone was engulfed in a “devastating” fire that destroyed $16 million worth of drone parts.
Thursday’s reported attack on the region is Kyiv’s latest strike on targets inside Russian territory key to Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
The region has faced Ukrainian strikes before, with the latest attack coming only days after a fuel facility in the region was hit by drones on December 22.
Only eight days earlier, another drone attack struck the Stalnoy Kon oil terminal, which supplies Russia’s military, causing a “powerful fire.”
Ukraine has continued to strike Russian targets, which include oil facilities, munitions depots and military airfields, and follows the U.S. dropping its restrictions on the use of longer-range weapons such as ATACMS deep inside Russia.
What To Know
The warehouse in Oryol where Shahed drones were maintained and repaired was hit on Boxing Day, Ukraine’s General Staff said in a post on Facebook, which did not mention the type of weapon it used in the strike.
Ukraine’s Air Force worked with other parts of Ukraine’s defense forces to strike the fortified military facility in an operation that “significantly reduced the enemy’s capability to conduct air raids using kamikaze drones against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure,” the statement said, according to a translation.
Separately, Ukrainian drones targeted the Russian regions of Voronezh, Rostov and Belgorod overnight Friday, according to Russian authorities which claimed that 56 of the devices had been shot down. A drone attack also forced the temporary closure of the airport in the city of Kazan in the Tatarstan republic.
What They Are Saying
Ukraine’s General Staff said on Facebook that its military had: “Struck a fortified military facility of the Russian Armed Forces in the Oryol region.”
Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) spokesperson, Andrii Yusov said: “Ukrainian long-range unmanned aerial vehicles can hypothetically operate up to 2,000 kilometers.”
What Happens Next
Ukraine’s General Staff said “efforts to identify and neutralize targets on the aggressor’s territory will continue.”
Kyiv’s domestic drone production continues apace with a military intelligence spokesperson, Andrii Yusov telling Ukrainian television on Friday that Kyiv has devices that have a range of over 1,200 miles.
“Ukrainian long-range unmanned aerial vehicles can hypothetically operate up to 2,000 kilometers,” he said, according to the Kyiv Independent.
Ukraine has also boasted about its development of long-range “missile-drones,” which have turbojet engines that can be used as alternatives to cruise missiles. Kyiv unveiled its Palianytsia and Peklo missile drones in the second half of 2024.