A warehouse with parts for Shahed-136 kamikaze drones was destroyed in the Russian Tatarstan in the territory of the “Alabuga” economic zone. According to reports from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, parts for Shahed-type strike drones worth $16 million burned down in the warehouse.
“Whether the fire was caused by agents inside the facility, a long-range sabotage group, or unmanned drones, it demonstrates increased attention to combating Russian drones at the production stage”, – writes about the fire at the Russian factory in Forbes.
The Ukrainian GUR report does not mention the causes of the fire, only mentioning that the warehouse was destroyed as a result of a “mysterious destructive fire”, adding that it “became another blow to the [Russian] military-industrial complex”.
In the international media, this fire is called just one of many fires caused by sabotage, drones with explosives. The GUR estimates the damage caused by the destruction of the Russian warehouse at $16 million.
“The premises contained 65 fuselages of attack drones, as well as engines, navigation systems, thermal imaging cameras for the production of 400 Shahed-136 units – all burned”, – Ukrainian intelligence said in a statement.
Thousands of Shahed-136 “kamikaze” drones that Iran supplied to Russia during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine were used to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and exhaust its air defenses.
Shahed drones, previously imported by the Kremlin from Iran, are now being assembled and manufactured at a new factory in the “Alabuga” economic zone in Tatarstan, about 1,000 km from Moscow. Previously, Voice of America described how the Russian Federation lures students and African women to work at this factory.