A fire destroyed a warehouse where Shahed drone parts waiting for the assembly plant in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s Tatarstan.
The facility held drone parts worth around $16 million, Ukraine’s military intelligence directorate (HUR) said on its Telegram channel on Dec. 23.
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The Alabuga Special Economic Zone houses chemical, mechanical engineering and metal treatment factories, one of which is the Yelabuga drone factory that opened in July 2023. The facility produces Iranian designed Shahed and M3 Albatross reconnaissance drones for the Russia’s armed forces. The site is situated more than 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from Ukraine.
HUR enumerated the losses within the warehouse as being the fuselages for around 65 attack drones as well as sufficient engines, navigation systems, and thermal imaging cameras to support the production of 400 of the drones.
Describing the cause of the fire as a “mystery” despite its detailed knowledge of the contents of the warehouse, the HUR post described the fire as devastating and said, “Everything burned down.”
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On the morning of Dec. 21, a drone attack on the Tatarstan regional capital Kazan, which is about 180 kilometers (112 miles) from the economics zone damaged several buildings. While there is no obvious link between the two events and without claiming responsibility for the incident,
Ukraine’s intelligence agencies have a track record for carrying out sabotage operations in Russia’s rear areas either directly or through locally recruited “agents.”
As has become traditional in HUR posts it signed off with the phrase: “HUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reminds that there will be fair retribution for every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people.
The domestically produced drones manufactured in the Yelabuga factory, which is reported to produce 6,000 of the robot aircraft annually, have been used in ever increasing numbers to attack Ukrainian cities.
On the morning of April 2, a HUR-sponsored special operation launched light aircraft converted into drones against the Yelabuga factory which struck a dormitory building used by its workers injuring more than a dozen. At the same time a second manufacturing site in Nizhnekamsk was also hit by a HUR drone.
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