Ukrainian drones strike covert UAV plant in western Russia, sources claim
Ukrainian military intelligence drones (HUR) attacked a camouflaged drone production facility in Kaluga Oblast late on March 12, HUR sources confirmed for the Kyiv Independent.
Drone production lines were located on the grounds of an aerated concrete plant in the village of Obukhovo in Kaluga Oblast's Dzerzhinsky district, one of the sources claimed.
Kyiv has carried out regular long-range drone strikes against military and industrial facilities in Russia's rear, seeking to undermine its ability to wage its all-out war.
The statement comes after Kaluga Oblast Governor Vladislav Shapsha said that 25 drones were downed over the region overnight, with drone wreckage setting fire to an unspecified industrial facility in Dzerzhinsky district.
One employee suffered minor injuries, and the fire has been extinguished, according to Shapsha.
Locals reported powerful explosions and a fire at the plant on social media. Drone debris also damaged a cell tower and a power line in the Khvastovichsky district, the southernmost part of Kaluga Oblast, Shapsha said.
Russian air defenses downed 77 drones overnight, including 30 over Bryansk Oblast, six over Kursk and Voronezh oblasts each, and five over Rostov and Belgorod oblasts each, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed.
An unspecified infrastructure facility was also damaged on the evening of March 12 in Voronezh Oblast, a region bordering Ukraine's Luhansk Oblast, Governor Alexander Gusev said on his Telegram channel.
The targeted facility was part of the region's gas infrastructure, the Baza Telegram channel reported, citing residents.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Airports in Penza, Saratov, and Volgograd imposed temporary flight restrictions overnight, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency announced.
0:00
/
1×
Read also: Russia claims to retake Sudzha; Ukraine hasn't confirmed
We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
7 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Gabbard Warns Global Nuclear Annihilation Is Closer Than Ever
Tulsi Gabbard, the US director of national intelligence, released a video Tuesday warning that the world is closer to nuclear war than ever and accusing unnamed political elites of trying to foment conflict between world powers. Gabbard didn't cite any countries by name but her remarks echoed longtime claims by Russian officials and, more recently, by far-right commentators in the US who have warned that a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's strategic bomber fleet earlier this month made nuclear war more likely.
Miami Herald
29 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Telegram Messenger's Ties to Russia's FSB Revealed in New Report
The Telegram messaging app may have ties to Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), according to an investigation. Independent Russian investigative outlet IStories said it has uncovered evidence suggesting that the platform's server infrastructure is maintained by companies who have collaborated with Russian intelligence services, raising significant concerns about potential government surveillance. Responding to a request for comment, Telegram's head of Press and Media Relations Remi Vaughn said in a statement to Newsweek: "As a global company, Telegram has contracts with dozens of different service providers around the world. However, none of these service providers have access to Telegram data or sensitive infrastructure. "All Telegram servers belong to Telegram and are maintained by Telegram employees. Unauthorized access is impossible. Throughout its entire history, Telegram never disclosed any private messages to a third party - and its encryption has never been breached." In another auto-message sent after reaching out for comment, Telegram said: "Telegram is committed to protecting user privacy and human rights such as freedom of speech and assembly. It has played a prominent role in pro-democracy movements around the world, including in Iran, Russia, Belarus, Myanmar and Hong Kong. "Pavel Durov is the founder, owner and CEO of Telegram. He left Russia in 2014, after losing control of his previous company for refusing to hand over the data of Ukrainian protesters to security agencies. Pavel Durov lives in Dubai and holds a dual citizenship of the United Arab Emirates and France." Telegram has long held a reputation as a secure messaging app, and it is used globally by journalists, activists, and ordinary users seeking privacy. Its founder, Russian-born Pavel Durov, who was detained by French authorities in August 2024, has cultivated an image that the platform protects digital privacy. The IStories report challenges that image by linking the platform to Russia's FSB, which jails individuals critical of the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Telegram's infrastructure is managed by Global Network Management (GNM), a small firm registered in Antigua and Barbuda, which provides the platform with over 10,000 IP addresses, according to IStories. GNM's owner, Russian national Vladimir Vedeneyev, previously testified in a U.S. court that he has employees based in Russia. IStories also found that Vedeneyev serves as Telegram's chief financial officer. Many of these IP addresses were previously owned by Globalnet, a St. Petersburg-based telecommunications operator. IStories reported that Globalnet has connections to the Kremlin and Russian intelligence services, including the FSB. Electrontelecom, a St. Petersburg-based company, also reportedly provided Telegram with another 5,000 IP addresses, according to IStories, which identified the firm as an FSB contractor. Electrontelecom has provided services for the installation and maintenance of "a complex system for transmitting classified information from fixed facilities operated by the FSB's Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, which is used to carry out operational investigative activities," it said. The investigation comes days after Russian human rights NGO First Department warned that the FSB had gained access to Russians' communication with Ukrainian Telegram channels, which provide vital updates and reporting on Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "We know that by the time the defendants in cases of 'state treason' are detained, the FSB is already in possession of their correspondence. And the fact that neither defendants nor a lawyer are named in the main case allows the FSB to hide how exactly it goes about gaining access to that correspondence," First Department said. First Department head Dmitry Zair-Bek said that material from Telegram had already been used as evidence in "a significant number of cases." "On most cases, they have been accessed due to compromised devices. ... However, there are also cases in which no credible technical explanations consistent with known access methods can be identified," he said, Novaya Gazeta reported. "This could indicate either the use of undisclosed cyber espionage tools or Telegram's cooperation with the Russian authorities, obvious signs of which we see in a number of other areas," Zair-Bek added. Cybersecurity expert Michał Woźniak told IStories that beyond storing decrypted messages, Telegram also attaches a unique device identifier to each message sent on the platform, known as auth_key_id, which can determine where a user is located and reveal their IP addresses. "If someone has access to Telegram traffic and cooperates with Russian intelligence services, this means that the device identifier becomes a really big problem-a tool for global surveillance of messenger users, regardless of where they are and what server they connect to," Woźniak said. Telegram has not commented publicly on the investigation or the allegations. The company is being paid $300 million to roll out Elon Musk's Grok chatbot on the messaging app. "This summer, Telegram users will gain access to the best AI technology on the market. @elonmusk and I have agreed to a 1-year partnership to bring xAI's @grok to our billion+ users and integrate it across all Telegram apps," Durov announced on May 28. Related Articles Russia Expands Military Cooperation with North KoreaIsrael Denies Envoy's Claim of Patriot Defenses Given to UkraineNATO Ally Scraps Purchase of US Black Hawk Helicopters'Trump Is Losing,' Putin's Top Propagandist Says 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
Miami Herald
29 minutes ago
- Miami Herald
Putin ramps up drone-making to unleash attacks on Ukrainian cities
Russia is stepping up drone production to increase massive daily attacks on Ukrainian cities as Moscow pressures Kyiv to concede to peace terms. The Kremlin unleashed deadly destruction in the capital Kyiv and the Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, firing 315 drones and seven missiles, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That followed a barrage of a record 479 drones the previous night, which itself surpassed the high set on June 1. Moscow has escalated drone attacks this year with the scale of the strikes surging from a daily record of 267 UAVs in February. After initially losing ground to Ukraine in the development of drones, Russia has steadily ramped up mass production of Iranian-designed Shahed UAVs and other types of unmanned aircraft, giving the Kremlin a ready weapon to step up pressure on Kyiv to accept its war demands. In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered defense producers to accelerate drone output from the 1.5 million units produced last year. 'These weapons are still in short supply,' he said at the time. In January, he called for Russia to 'emerge as one of the global technological leaders' in drone production by 2030, in light of what he said was 'the huge importance of this industry' for the country. Moscow's aim is to use a 'punishment strategy' with inexpensive Shahed drones to force Kyiv into submission, the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a recent report. Although Ukraine manages to jam or shoot down most of them, the weapons 'saturate Ukrainian air defenses and erode civilian morale through persistent nightly attacks,' it said. Ukraine estimates Russia is preparing to produce between 300 to 350 long-range drones a day and wants to raise output to 500 a day, Zelenskyy said on May 27. Russian drone manufacturers succeeded in boosting production of long-range craft to more than 30,000 this year from 15,000 in 2024, while also producing as many as 2 million small tactical drones used against tanks and artillery, Politico reported June 5, citing Oleh Aleksandrov, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service. Ukraine's defense intelligence directorate estimates that half of the long-range drones produced each month are decoys, according to Forbes Ukraine. Kyiv has also accused Russia of using electronics largely sourced from China in violation of sanctions. Beijing has previously said it's not providing weapons to either side in the war. 'Drones turned out to be a low-cost alternative to precision weaponry,' said Denis Fedutinov, a Moscow-based expert on UAVs. 'This realization didn't come immediately. However, once it became clear that drones deliver tangible results, it provided the impetus to accelerate the integration of unmanned systems of various classes into military operations.' Growth across all categories of Russia's drone output has been exponential, compared to the figures before 2022, Fedutinov said. 'In some areas, such as loitering munitions and FPV drones, we're talking about increases by several orders of magnitude,' he said, referencing first-person view drones controlled by an operator via video feed. At talks in Istanbul last week, Russia laid out terms for a ceasefire that amounted to capitulation, including Kyiv handing over control of territory it still holds in four occupied regions and agreeing to neutrality and limits on its military capability and foreign weapon supplies. The European Union on Tuesday proposed export bans aimed at depriving Russia of critical technologies and industrial goods, including restricting dual-use items used in producing drones, missiles and other weapons. 'We want to make sure that Russia does not find ways to modernize its weapons with European technologies,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels. The E.U. also proposed banning the Nord Stream pipelines and cutting the Group of Seven oil price cap to $45 as part of the new sanctions package. In addition to the Shahed drones, which Russia started to import from Iran in 2022 before starting its own production, Russia has developed a new drone using Chinese technology that can select targets using AI. Ukrainian military intelligence on June 9 published details of the design of the new Russian V2U strike drone, which it said is used by Moscow's forces in Ukraine's northeast Sumy region. Ukraine has led the way in using drones on the battlefield. It launched UAVs from within Russia to strike a series of strategic air bases on June 1, destroying bombers, in one of the most audacious aerial attacks of the war. It's also deployed drones to devastating effect on the frontlines to prevent major Russian advances and to hit vital infrastructure deep inside Russian territory - including transportation networks and oil refineries. 'Russia has caught up and is maximizing production and use of drones, but they're doing this in a conventional way,' said Ruslan Pukhov, head of the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a defense think tank. 'The Ukrainians are managing not to lag behind in the drone war by responding asymmetrically.' With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska. Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
