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Ukraine carried out its long-range drone strikes in Russia more than two years after Moscow’s full-scale war began, wounding at least a dozen people in an attack on an industrial plant and a refinery more than 1,300 km behind enemy lines.
Ukrainian drones struck the Alabuga special economic zone in Tatarstan on Tuesday, which is home to a facility producing Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia uses for attacks on Ukraine. At least 12 people were injured in a student dormitory, according to Tass.
Videos posted on social media showed one of Alabuga’s drones crashing into a building, followed by a violent explosion.
Russia’s third-largest oil refinery, located in the nearby city of Nizhnekamsk, was also damaged in the attack. A Ukrainian drone struck the refinery’s primary oil processing plant, causing a fire that emergency services put out within 20 minutes, according to state newswire RIA Novosti.
The terminal’s refining capacity is about 8 million tons of oil per year, about half of the plant’s total production.
The governor of Tatarstan’s regional government said neither site suffered serious damage.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Russia’s oil refineries, terminals, depots and storage facilities in recent weeks in an attempt to limit Moscow’s revenue from energy sales and fuel supplies for its invading army.
The United States has repeatedly warned Kiev against the attacks, fearful of their impact on global oil prices and the potential for retaliation.
Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, told reporters that the Russian military “is working to minimize this threat and ultimately simply eliminate it,” Interfax reported.
The long-range drone used in Tuesday’s attack was made by Ukrainian military intelligence engineers, a person familiar with the matter told the Financial Times. “Ukraine continues to destroy military forces on the territory of the aggressor state with its own means,” they said.
Alexander Kots, a prominent pro-war Russian blogger, said the drones appeared to be Ukrainian-made Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat light aircraft, packed with explosives and adapted as drones.
Ukraine’s long-range weapons technology and production are shrouded in secrecy, with Ukrainian officials refusing to release details.
However, the drones currently used are at least partly based on captured Shahed drones. Ukrainian military engineers dismantled downed Iranian drones in October 2022, and Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Infrastructure Oleksandr Kamyshin announced in November that Ukraine was now mass-producing analogues of the Shahed.
In May 2023, Ukraine began sending its drones to Moscow as a show of force. In September it began striking military targets inside Russia. Since the beginning of this year, domestically made attack drones have struck 10 Russian refineries and oil depots, as well as three metallurgical and mining plants.
Additional reporting by Christopher Miller in Kiev