Ukrainian drones
attacked industrial facilities in the Russian province of
Tatarstan
on Tuesday , according to a report from Moscow authorities, in what would be, if confirmed,
the attack by Kiev that went the furthest into Russian territory
since the war began more ago. of two years.
Seven people were injured in the attack on facilities near the cities of Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk, located
about 1,200 kilometers east of Ukraine
, according to Russian regional authorities.
The attack damaged
accommodation for students and workers
in the duty-free zone where an Iranian-designed drone factory is supposedly located, according to reports in other media. Tatarstan is known for its high level of industrialization.
Near Yelabuga, in addition, there is a special economic zone that houses chemical and mechanical engineering and metal factories. Nizhnekamsk has a large oil refinery.
Local authorities said that industrial production was not affected, and the mayor of Nizhnekamsk said that anti-aircraft defenses
had thwarted the attempt to attack the refinery
.
A source from the Ukrainian Defense sector told the AFP agency that
"it was an operation by the GUR
," Ukraine's military intelligence service, which on other occasions claimed responsibility for attacks of this type against Russian factories or refineries.
"It was a GUR operation, an attack with Ukrainian drones
against a Shahed drone assembly company
. Significant damage was inflicted on the site," said the source, who did not specify whether the attack was carried out from Russian or Ukrainian territory.
Ukrainian authorities do not usually claim or deny responsibility for attacks on Russian territory, although they sometimes make indirect references.
Drone developers have been expanding the range of their weapons for months, part of kyiv's efforts to compensate for its disadvantage on the battlefield in weapons and troops. Unmanned aircraft are also an affordable option as Ukraine waits for more U.S. military aid.
Neither side can make much progress right now on the roughly 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) of the front.
Ukraine has in the past sent drones against St. Petersburg and its surroundings, about 1,000 kilometers north of the border. But the facilities in Tatarstan, a province on the Volga River, would appear to be the most distant target Ukraine attempted to hit.
Russian refineries and oil terminals
were targeted by Ukrainian drones in recent weeks
, within an increase in attacks on Russian territory that included the use of long-distance drones.
President Zelensky said last year that his country had developed a weapon that hit a target 700 kilometers away, an apparent reference to a drone attack on Russian territory.
The government is determined to build a state-of-the-art “drone army,” Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said late last year. He added that his contribution to the war would be clear by the end of this year, noting that Ukraine had trained more than
10,000 new drone pilots
last year.
Ukraine also developed lethal maritime drones that attacked Russian Navy ships in the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian air force said on Tuesday it had intercepted nine of 10 Shahed drones launched overnight by Russia in a new attack on the country's power grid.
With information from agencies.