$16 mln of Shahed-136 drone parts lost in Russia's Alabuga economic zone fire – Ukraine's intelligence
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A warehouse caught fire in the Alabuga economic zone of Tatarstan, located in the Russian Federation, which housed components for Shahed–136 attack drones.
Ukraine's intelligence reported that.
According to intelligence officers, the premises contained:
- 65 fuselages of attack drones,
- engines,
- navigation systems,
- thermal imaging cameras for the production of 400 Shahed-136 units.
According to the scouts, all of this burned down.
The losses caused by the destruction of the Russian warehouse are estimated at $16 million.
"The mysterious destructive fire was another blow to the military-industrial complex of terrorist Russia. The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reminds everyone that for every war crime committed against the Ukrainian people, there will be fair retribution," the message says.
For reference:
This is not the first time the Shahed factory in Tatarstan has been attacked.
The government of the Republic of Tatarstan owns the Alabuga Special Economic Zone, which, as reported by the US, has a contract with the Russian military to assemble Shahed drones. The US Treasury Department has forecasted that the special economic zone will ramp up production to manufacture thousands of drones by 2025.
According to media reports, the Russian plant in Alabuga planned to produce 6,000 Shahed attack drones annually. By the end of April this year, it was already ahead of schedule and had delivered 4,500 drones.
According to media reports, the Russians were recruiting female students in Africa, particularly in Uganda, to work at Alabuga. The offer included skilled work with wages three times higher than in Uganda, airfare, free housing, and a university degree to join a work-study program.
It is worth mentioning that on April 2, Ukrainian drones carried out their first attacks on businesses in the Republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation. These explosions occurred in the Alabuga special economic zone, home to numerous industrial and manufacturing companies, located 1,000 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
The attack targeted the Shahed drones assembly plant. Ukraine's intelligence orchestrated the operation. Furthermore, according to Russian media, the drones also struck a dormitory where employees of the plant resided. Casualties were reported.
