Ukrainian drones reportedly attack Samara plant making raw materials for Russian artillery, bombs
Ukraine carried out a wave of overnight drone attacks across Russia on July 22, Moscow said, while a Ukrainian official said that one of the targets was a key military-linked facility.
In Russia's Samara Oblast, Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said several drones were destroyed while attempting to strike an industrial facility.
Fedorishchev reported no casualties or damage but confirmed that authorities temporarily restricted mobile internet in the area to allegedly assist military efforts in neutralizing the drones.
According to Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, the target in Samara was the Novokuybyshevsk Petrochemical Company, a major gas-processing and petrochemical facility that supplies raw materials used in the production of explosives.
These materials are used in artillery shells, aerial bombs, cluster munitions, and rockets — critical components of Russia's military operations, he said.
"The volume of processing (of raw materials) is about 1 million tons per year," Kovalenko said.
Samara lies roughly 500 kilometers (300 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border.
Russia's Defense Ministry said its air defenses intercepted and destroyed 35 fixed-wing drones overnight in various regions, including those near Moscow, the Black Sea, and several western and southern oblasts.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin confirmed that a drone was downed en route to the capital, with emergency services responding at the debris site. This marks the sixth consecutive night of drone attacks on Moscow.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these reports.
Kyiv has repeatedly targeted Russian industrial and military facilities deep in the rear to undermine Moscow's ability to wage its all-out war.
