Ukraine used a Cessna-sized drone to strike deep into the Russian Federation early Tuesday, hitting factories and refineries multiple times over the longest range of the war so far.
The attacks, claimed by Kiev military intelligence early Tuesday, targeted a drone factory and an oil refinery more than 1,300 miles from the front lines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Footage shared by Ukrainian state media from the scene shows a large drone, perhaps the size of a civilian single-engine pleasure aircraft, crashing into a building in a residential area and exploding.
‘Major fire’ caused by Ukrainian drone attack on Russian oil depot https://t.co/UrTMlHvKLG
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 19, 2024
The drone superficially looks very similar to a product by Ukrainian drone maker Aerodrone, which made autonomous weed killers before the war but switched to military use after the Russian invasion. The company’s Enterprise model has a range of 3,100 km (1,900 miles) and can carry a payload of 300 kg (660 lb).ukrainian government signed a contract This time last year, the company collaborated to deliver drones to the Ministry of Defense.
As is often the case in this war, Ukrainian and Russian sources differ on the attack. The attack hit targets in the Tatarstan region along the Volga River, hitherto unaffected by the conflict, and was the longest attack by Ukrainian forces in the war so far. However, today is not the first time that a long-range attack has been carried out; there have been previous attempts to attack Moscow itself.
Russia condemned the attack as a terrorist attack, but insisted it was ineffective and did not disrupt industrial production in the region, while Ukrainian intelligence said it was an effective measure against the Russian economy. Ta. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday called the Ukraine airstrike a terrorist act, saying the military was “working to minimize this threat and completely eradicate it in the future,” vowing revenge. I showed you.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said the attack, which it claimed was an attack by its own country, was carried out at the Shahid suicide drone assembly plant in Yelabga, Tatarstan, 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine. ”. border. The Shahed design originated in Iran and has proven to be a low-cost and effective way for Russian forces to launch saturation attacks against Ukrainian cities. Drones are slow and relatively easy to shoot down, while costing a fraction of the cost of traditional cruise and ballistic missiles.
Russia rejected the idea that Ukraine had hit its industrial capacity, insisting that the attack only hit a local student accommodation building, injuring 12 people, including young people. The Kremlin said the drone was “equipped with NATO equipment.”
Another target was an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan. Ukrainian intelligence claimed that the country has one of Russia’s largest refining capacities, accounting for 2.6 percent of the country’s total refining capacity. According to Ukrainian state media, they said: “We continue to work systematically to ensure that Russia has fewer and fewer opportunities to finance its war of aggression against Ukraine. Minimize the flow of oil money into Russia’s war budget. To contain it, we will continue to cut off oxygen supplies to the country at “gas stations”. ”
Ukraine claims the attack started the fire. Russia counterclaimed that the attack failed and that the drone was disabled by a jammer.
Although Ukraine remains determined to sabotage Russia’s economy and erode Russia’s ability to continue encroaching on its territory, many Western supporters of Ukraine are willing to accept that the conflict will escalate into all-out war. very reluctant to do so. It is clear that much of the military equipment supplied to Kiev by NATO has restrictions and that it should only be used to retake territory inside Ukraine, and never inside Russia. In other cases, NATO countries have refrained from using long-range weapons due to concerns that Ukraine could use them to attack the Kremlin itself.
In the case of today’s refinery strike, it happened a few days after Ukraine went on strike. US warns to stop attacking Russia’s oil infrastructure. The attack could reduce Russia’s capabilities and revenues in the world energy market, but at the same time limit global supplies and cause prices to rise for Ukraine’s allies. Ukraine responded to the request, stating at a Security Forum event that Russia’s energy infrastructure is a legitimate military objective for Ukraine.
Moscow says Ukrainian drones hit targets deep in Russia, including shooting down near capitalhttps://t.co/9bgfpXJMUx
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) March 12, 2024
