- Russia’s Yelabuga zone, where it makes Shaheds, came under drone attack on Wednesday.
- Yelabuga is about 700 miles from Ukraine.
- Ukraine previously struck the local Shahed facility in 2024, using aircraft converted into a drone.
Russian air defenses were seen battling a drone over the Yelabuga special economic zone on Wednesday, where Moscow builds its Shahed loitering munitions.
Footage on Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels showed air-defense munitions struggling to destroy what appears to be a drone resembling a small airplane. Business Insider geolocated one of these clips, which was filmed by a person standing near an Aurus car factory in Yelabuga.
In the video, the flying object maneuvers over the special economic zone, avoiding munitions that miss and explode in midair.
Kovalenko wrote: “This year, the Russians have set a target of producing between 8,000 and 10,000 Shahed/Geran drones annually in Yelabuga, as well as 15,000 decoy drones.”
As the video of the drone evading Russian defenses circulated on social media, the Telegram channel Operation Z, run by pro-Kremlin bloggers, posted a clip on Wednesday of a similar drone descending in a ball of flame after being struck by an air-defense missile.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that it had shot down an “aircraft-type” drone over Tatarstan but did not mention Yelabuga.
Ukrainian and Russian channels said more drones were present, but both sides reported different outcomes. The popular Ukrainian Telegram blogger Nikolaevsky Vanyok, who posts regular updates on the war, wrote that five drones hit their target while one was shot down. Operation Z wrote that four drones were destroyed. BI couldn’t independently verify the authenticity of either claim.
Ukraine struck Russia’s Shahed production facility in Yelabuga in early April 2024 using a drone that resembled the fixed-wing ones filmed this week.
Kyiv used a Cessna-style ultralight sporting aircraft, the Aeroprakt A-22 Foxbat, that was converted into an uncrewed aerial vehicle that can be packed with explosives.
The Iranian-designed Shaheds have been core to Russia’s operations in Ukraine, where the Kremlin has deployed thousands of the loitering munitions to harass and attack Ukrainian cities and military targets.
The day before Wednesday’s attack at Yelabuga, another major Russian facility, an ammunition depot near Moscow, suffered a massive explosion.
Ukraine did not comment on the cause of the explosive incident. It regularly carries out long-range drone and missile strikes on ammunition depots and military production facilities within Russia. The Kremlin said the blast was the result of a mishandling of explosives.
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-long-range-drones-strike-yelabuga-shahed-facility-2025-4
“In the video, the flying object maneuvers over the special economic zone, avoiding munitions that miss and explode in midair.”
As the video proves, the roaches can’t even down a slow flying light sport plane! That doesn’t speak well for their so-called air defense systems. This makes the Ukrainian claim more plausible … that only one drone was shot down.
Just think what Ukraine could achieve with better, faster drones and long-range cruise missiles.