A drone attack claimed by kyiv targeted an industrial site in Tatarstan early Tuesday April 2 and injured 13 people, said the authorities of this Russian Republic located more than 1,000 kilometers from Ukraine.
Ukraine regularly carries out drone attacks or sabotage against factories, railways or refineries on Russian territory, but it is rare for a strike to affect infrastructure so far from the border.
A source within the Ukrainian defense sector, interviewed by AFP, affirmed that it "was an operation of the GUR", the Ukrainian military intelligence, which has in the past claimed responsibility for multiple attacks of this type on Russian soil.
According to this same source, the strike targeted a drone assembly site. "It was a GUR operation, an attack by Ukrainian drones on a company assembling drones (explosives, editor's note) Shahed. Significant damage was inflicted on the site," said the source, without specifying whether the attack had been launched from Russian or Ukrainian territory.
On the Russian side, the press service of Rustam Minnikhanov, the leader of the Republic of Tatarstan, indicated that “an aerial drone attack was carried out this morning against Tatarstan factories located in Yelabuga and Nizhnekamsk.”
A special economic zone targeted
The attack "did not cause serious damage, the technological process of the companies was not disrupted," the statement said, without saying which factories had been targeted.
The Tatarstan Ministry of Health, however, reported 13 people injured by the explosion caused by the drone, “students, including two minors”. “Eight people were hospitalized for injuries of light or medium severity, their lives are not threatened,” he added on Telegram.
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Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri Peskov assured him that the Russian army "is striving to minimize and then completely eliminate the threat" of Ukrainian strikes in Russia.
It was the Alabouga special economic zone (SEZ), located about ten kilometers from the city of Yelabouga, which was targeted around 2:45 a.m. GMT on Tuesday, according to the SEZ press service.
This area has factories and companies, specializing in the production of chemicals, mechanics and metal processing.
The other targeted site, in Nizhnekamsk, is a large oil refinery. According to local authorities, the drone was neutralized by an electronic jamming system and its fall caused no injuries or damage.
Drone attacks targeting Russian energy sites have increased in recent months, causing major fires, particularly in refineries.
Also read: Ukraine: three power plants targeted by Russian drone and missile fire
kyiv had promised to bring the fighting to Russian soil in retaliation for the numerous bombings of its territory.
Russia intensified its strikes on Ukrainian energy networks in the spring, leading to electricity cuts and rationing which affected hundreds of thousands of civilians.
With AFP
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