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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Ukraine destroys key Russian drone factory, but it's losing the drone and missile war |
| 2026-01-13 |
| [Intellinews] tldr; Ukraine has stepped up its campaign against Russia’s defence-industrial base with a strike on a key drone-production facility in the southern city of Taganrog, underscoring Kyiv’s growing focus on disrupting Moscow’s ability to wage long-range warfare. According to a report by Kyiv Independent, Ukrainian forces struck a factory involved in the production of strike and reconnaissance drones overnight on January 13, triggering a large fire and multiple explosions. The operation was attributed to Ukraine’s security services and naval units. “The SBU's Alpha Special Operations Center, together with units of the Ukrainian Navy's forces and equipment group, struck the production buildings of the Atlant Aero plant,” the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement. The strike on the Taganrog plant is the latest in a string of black-ops that have successfully targeted Russian military assets deep within Russia’s borders. Ukrainian special forces have successfully blown up military airfields on the Crimea peninsula as well as targeting Russian oil tankers docking in ports in both the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, secretly attaching limpet mines to their hulls that are detonated hundreds of kilometres away when they are at sea. Key infrastructure, such as the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline have also been hit. In the most spectacular operation to date, Ukraine smuggled a truck full of drones into Siberia and struck an airfield in Operation Spiderweb on June 1 that destroyed dozens of irreplaceable strategic bombers thousands of kilometres away from the frontline. However, despite the campaign, the very biggest drone factories, like the recently opened Alabuga Special Economic Zone facility, have remained beyond reach and Russia’s expanding production of drones and missiles has continued to expand in the last year. In 2025, Russia’s production of arms and ammo went into surplus as it moved into the lead in the arms race with Ukraine. The Kremlin produced an estimated 2mn drones and 2,500 missiles in 2025, double the amount it made in the previous PRESSURE ON THE FRONT REDUCED The facility, operated by Atlant Aero, is located in Taganrog, close to the Sea of Azov and only a few hundred kilometres from the Ukrainian front line. The plant produces the “Orion” drones, one of the workhorses of the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR), as well as electronic warfare systems and digital integration technologies used in strike FPV (first-person-view) drones and loitering munitions, according to the SBU. “The destruction of the plant will reduce the production of (unmanned aerial vehicles) UAVs and weaken the technical capabilities of the occupiers to conduct reconnaissance and strike operations using drones,” the agency said, as cited by The Kyiv Independent. “Each stopped production line means hundreds of drones that will not fly over Ukrainian cities, kill civilians, or destroy homes.” Moscow has previously acknowledged drone attacks on industrial facilities in the Rostov region but often downplays the extent of damage. The strike highlights the central role drones have come to play in the war. Russia has relied heavily on a mix of domestically produced UAVs, such as the Orion, and Iranian-designed Shahed drones to carry out deep strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and cities. In response, Ukraine has increasingly targeted military production sites, logistics hubs and airfields inside Russia, as well as economic targets including Russian refineries. Taganrog has been hit before, previously targeted in June last year. Ukraine’s expanding long-range strike arsenal - combining domestically developed drones, modified missiles and intelligence-led black-ops - has allowed it to reach targets once considered beyond its reach. Western officials have privately acknowledged that these will not stop production, but are intended to just slow output, force dispersion and raise the cost of sustaining the war. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2026-01-13 11:05 |