Ukrainian Drones Hit Russian Aircraft Factory at Smolensk

Ukrainian drones attacked a missile factory in Smolensk, Russia, with three of the four UAVs hitting the production site for the Kh-59 air-launched cruise missile, which Russia has used repeatedly to target the Ukrainian civilian population.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said the attack was around 9 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 1.

“According to confirmed data, three of the four drones hit the target, causing significant damage to the production capacities of the military enterprise of the aggressor state,” the HUR wrote on Telegram.

As a result of drones hitting the Smolensk plant, the process of producing Kh-59 various modifications was disrupted. Usually, the Russian military has used these missiles against the border regions of Ukraine.

Military intelligence spokesperson Andrei Yusov told Kyiv Post that even minor damage to such a complex production mechanism creates problems for the Russians.

“Even the slightest damage to the production base usually causes serious delays, schedule interruption, and inability to make deliveries. production and many other problems. Therefore, the consequences can be quite tangible for the aggressor,” Yusov said.

“The Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions suffer the most from the use of these weapons,” he said.

Yuzov also said that the Kh-59 (specifically the Kh-59MK2 model) air-to-surface missile, which has a range of up to 280 km, is one of those the Russian aerospace forces most often use to bombard both military and civilian sites in Ukraine.

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Yusov said not to “underestimate the enemy and the powerful air defense systems of Russia. But if Russia had not waged war against Ukraine, the Russian military would have been able to defend the sky over its territory.

“Now they will be forced to disengage their efforts on a huge front line and large territories. First of all to the occupied territories of Ukraine, particularly Crimea,” Yusov said.

Yusov said that intelligence is being improved daily and “new opportunities and new routes are constantly being studied and tested.”

Therefore, such strikes are possible “not only because of the failure of the enemy’s air defenses but because of the improvement of tactics for such strikes.”

The Kremlin does not usually publicize attacks in real time or comment on damage caused by Ukrainian drones.

However, on Oct. 1, at about 9 a.m., the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that three unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down over the Smolensk region and 40 minutes later it reported that two more UAVs had been intercepted.

The governor of the Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, wrote on Telegram that there were no casualties or damage.

“In total, the air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense over Smolensk and the suburbs suppressed five unmanned aerial vehicles of the type,” Anokhin said. “There is no damage or damage. Operational services work on the spot.”

Russian Telegram channel Agency.News wrote that in Smolensk the drone attacked the plant of the state corporation Tactical Missile Weapons.

“This follows from the videos published by eyewitnesses, which the Agency analyzed. In the video, shots from small arms are heard before the explosion, which probably refutes the statement of the Ministry of Defense about the defeat of all drones in the Smolensk region by air defense forces,” the Russian Telegram channel wrote.

In addition, other Russian networks published videos of eyewitnesses of explosions in the Smolensk region. According to the eyewitnesses, the explosion was heard within a radius of at least 12 km, even outside the city.

According to Agenstvo.Novosti, the main activities of the Tactical Missile Weapons corporation include the production of custom-made aircraft Yak-18T, SM-92T in various modifications; maintenance of aviation Yak-18T, manufacture of spare parts for Yak-40 and Yak-42 aircraft.

An alleged additional attack on Oct. 1 by Ukrainian drones in Sochi was reported by Ukrainska Pravda but was not mentioned in the official Ukrainian HUR release taking responsibility for the Smolensk attack. Sources cited online mentioning a drone attack were of Russian origin and could not be independently verified by Kyiv Post at the time of publication.