On Jan. 8, Ukrainian drones motored at least 400 miles to strike a sprawling fuel storage facility near the Russian air force’s Engels bomber base in Saratov in southern Russia. Six days later, drones struck the same fuel depot again, stoking a blaze that continued to burn days later.
Now Ukraine’s long-range unmanned aerial vehicles are going after the factory that builds and maintains many of the Russian air force’s bombers: the Kazan Aircraft Plant in Kazan, around 700 miles from the front line in Ukraine. Overnight on Sunday, Russian Telegram users reported drones overhead—and a blast and fire at a fuel depot near the factory.
“Lighting up the night sky in Russia’s Kazan region, burning Russian aircraft manufacturing facilities for the production and repair of the long range strategic bombers that regularly rain missiles on the people of Ukraine,” the Ukrainian Center for Strategic Communication celebrated as the flames rose and smoke billowed in Kazan.
The Sunday night strike was just part of a wider wave of raids. At the same time Kazan exploded, Ukrainian munitions—drones or missiles—struck a helicopter factory in the city as well as a fuel depot in Bryansk Oblast, in southern Russian just 25 miles from Ukraine. “And there will be more,” the Center for Strategic Communication vowed.
It’s unclear what types of drone were involved in attacks on Kazan. Ukraine has developed a dizzying array of long-range UAVs, including some based on modified A-22 sport planes. The earlier Saratov raids may have involved the smaller PD-2, Beaver, Liutyi and UJ-22—all of which are between six and 10 feet long, propeller-driven, presumably GPS-guided and capable of flying hundreds of miles with explosive payloads.
It’s notable that so many of Ukraine’s recent deep strikes have been targeting fuel depots. The raids are a kind of corollary to the ongoing campaign of strikes targeting the Russian oil industry—in particular, its refineries. Oil doesn’t just fuel the Russian war machine, it’s also a main source of revenue for the Russian state.
Blowing up the fuel tanks attached to Russian bomber bases—and the industrial sites associated with the bomber bases—probably can’t stop the Russian bombardment of Ukrainian cities, but it can make the bombardment costlier for Moscow.
And blowing up fuel tanks and factories is easier than blowing up the bombers themselves. The bombers—120 Tupolev Tu-22Ms, Tu-95s and Tu-160s—fly high and fast, launch their cruise missiles hundreds of miles from Ukrainian cities and, when they are on the ground, are spread across potentially dozens of bases.
By contrast, the tanks and factories are big and unmoving. Easy targets for Ukraine’s drones.
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