A Russian official warned citizens of a war-torn area of the country that they’ll have to fend for themselves against future drone attacks.
Ever since Russia initiated its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine in February of 2022, the country has been hit by drone attacks that have reached as far as Moscow. In addition, many ammunition warehouses and depots have been targeted by such drone attacks.
Authorities in Russia have blamed Ukraine for these attacks, though the country doesn’t often claim responsibility for those attacks.
On Tuesday, a drone attack struck Tatarstan, a republic in Russia. The attack struck industrial areas of the region that are responsible for producing Shahed drones, which are designed by Iran and that Russia uses extensively in its war efforts.
After the attack occurred, Rustam Minnikhanov, who is the head of the region, suggested that the system that typically protects against threats that come from the air might not be of any help.
As Radio Free Europe reported, Minnikhanov said:
“You should not expect missile defense to work. It solves other tasks.”
He didn’t specify what those tasks were. He added:
“We have to decide on our own, every enterprise, every municipality, every city. The Almighty has given a chance. Wake up, guys, no one will protect us but ourselves.”
There was a video that was shared on some channels on the social media platform Telegram that show when one device caused a large fireball in Yelabuga, which is located about 900 miles east of Ukraine’s border with Russia, and roughly 600 miles east of Russia’s capital Moscow.
In that attack, a complex of housing that was built for employees of that special economic zone as well as students who attend a local college suffered significant damage. That complex is located only a few hundred meters from an assembly workshop that’s used for drones.
Another strike reportedly happened at an oil refining facility in the region of Nizhenkamsk. It has a yearly capacity of 8 million tons of oil, which is about 2.6% of the total annual refining capacity that Russia produces.
Over the last few months, oil facilities in Russia have been targeted by drone attacks.
Media outlets in Ukraine reported this week that a source within the intelligence community in the country said they were responsible for the operation that was carried out on Tuesday.
While he didn’t directly claim that they were responsible for the attacks, Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the intelligence agency in Ukraine, said that there were no weapons that were made in foreign countries used for those strikes.
Authorities in Tatarstan said that the strikes didn’t cause any significant damage, and that the technological capabilities of the companies ended up being disrupted. That being said, there were some casualties, and reports said that 14 other people were injured in the attacks.
It’s a scary proposition that Russia has no ability to protect its citizens from these ever-increasing drone attacks.
