Yuri Kobzar20:06, 01.02.24
An explosion at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant occurred in August, and after that the Russians began having problems with the Lancets.
Ukraine was probably able to significantly damage the production of the most successful Russian kamikaze drone, the Lancet . The number of these UAVs at the front has decreased significantly in recent months, Forbes writes.
It is noted that the Lancet, created before a full-scale war, has proven itself to be an effective and cheap way to destroy Ukrainian tanks and artillery. Therefore, already in 2023, the Russians began to quickly increase its production.
According to calculations by the Russian OSINT group LostArmour, if in January-February 2023 25 videos of successful Lancet attacks appeared online, then in July their number reached 135. However, in the fall, the Lancets began to disappear from the front. In September and October, 50 successful strikes were recorded, in November – 89 in November, in December – 59.
According to specialists from the Ukrainian OSINT group Molfar, which studies sabotage operations in Russia, the reason for this reduction could be a successful strike by Ukrainian troops on the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant (ZOMZ), which supplied optical components to the Lancet manufacturer. Without these optics, the drone is of no use.
A powerful explosion at ZOMZ, located in the town of Sergiev Posad near Moscow, occurred on August 9 last year. The losses were significant. In addition to at least three dozen people being injured, four of the plant’s buildings were destroyed or seriously damaged.
Although Russian authorities denied a drone strike, some witnesses insisted that the plant was attacked by a drone. The explosion occurred in a warehouse rented from the plant by a fireworks supplier, which explains the high power of the explosion, unattainable by a drone. Experts suggest that this could indeed have been an attack by a drone that hit the pyrotechnics warehouse.
“Taking into account the Russian practice of concealing information about attacks on Russian military targets, it can be assumed that the explosion on the territory of the Zagorsk plant was a planned action by the Ukrainian side,” said a representative of Molfar.
And it was after this explosion that a sharp reduction in the supply of Lancets to the front began. Experts note that this drone consists almost entirely of imported components. Russia itself produces only the case, power supply and camera – these are exactly what ZOMZ manufactured.
It was only in January that the Russians were apparently able to find a new source of optics for the Lancets. During the first month of the new year, 139 new videos appeared on the Internet with the successful use of these drones. However, this only confirmed that the Lancet manufacturer cannot produce drones without certain components, and new attacks from Ukraine could stop it, Forbes notes.
Explosion at the Zagorsk Optical-Mechanical Plant
As UNIAN wrote, on August 9, a powerful explosion was heard in the city of Sergiev Posad, northeast of Moscow . A huge column of smoke and dust was visible almost throughout Moscow. Dozens of people were taken to hospitals. There were also reports of rubble in buildings under which there could be people.
Russian non-state media wrote that many people died from the explosion , but the authorities denied this.
The Kremlin decided to lay the blame for the explosion on the owner of the Piro-Ros company , which deals with pyrotechnics. It was her warehouse, located on the territory of the plant, that became the epicenter of the explosion.
Experts agreed that the explosion was unlikely to be the result of an attack from Ukrainian territory – too far away. In addition, the Ukrainian special services did not claim responsibility for this event.
(C)UNIAN 2024