VIDEO Drone attack in Tatarstan, 1,100 km from the border with Ukraine / The facility where the Russians want to manufacture thousands of Shahed drones, as well as a refinery, was allegedly targeted

A drone attack on Tuesday targeted factories in Tatarstan, more than 1,100 km from the border with Ukraine, injuring several people, the regional authorities announced, quoted by AFP. In that economic zone is an industrial unit where Russia wants to manufacture, with the help of Iran, thousands of Shahed drones, The Washington Post wrote last summer.

This appears to be the first Ukrainian attack in the Russian republic of Tatarstan and is one of the strikes carried out the furthest from the border with Ukraine.

“An airstrike by drones was carried out this morning against Tatarstan factories located in Yelabuga and Nijnekamsk,” the press service of Tatar leader Rustem Minnikhanov said on Telegram.

Nijnekamsk is also home to an important oil refinery. An unverified video clip posted on social media allegedly shows the moment of the strike on the refinery.

The attack “did not cause serious damage, the technological process of the companies was not disrupted,” said the quoted source, without specifying which factories were targeted. “In Yelabouga, unfortunately, there were several injured,” he emphasized.

The Alabouga Special Economic Zone (SEZ), created in 2006 and home to dozens of factories and enterprises specializing in the production of chemical products, mechanical engineering and metal processing, is located about ten kilometers from the city of Yelabouga.

Two drones attacked a building in Alabouga at 02:45 GMT on Tuesday, injuring two people, the press service of the special economic zone said in a statement. Another unverified clip posted on social media shows a large drone that looks a lot like a light plane descending to the ground and causing an explosion.

The Russians want to produce thousands of Shahed drones there

The Washington Post wrote last August, in an extensive investigative material, that in the Alabouga economic zone the Russians had established a production facility where they had already assembled 300 Shahed explosive drones with components supplied by Iran.

Moreover, it appears that the Russians are trying to manufacture and even improve the attack drones themselves, with a target of manufacturing 6,000 units by 2025.

Documents seen by The Washington Post show that engineers at the plant are trying to improve on Iran’s outdated manufacturing techniques, using Russian industrial expertise to produce the drones on a larger scale than Tehran has done and with greater quality control.

Engineers there are also trying to make improvements to the drone, including making it capable of swarm attacks, where drones autonomously coordinate an attack on a target.