Military aircraft plant reportedly among targets of Ukrainian drone strike on Kazan

Ukrainian drones attacked industrial targets in the city of Kazan in Russia’s Volga region early on Monday, as well as elsewhere in the republic of Tatarstan, according to Radio Svoboda, the Russian-language service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

While the regional authorities said that all incoming Ukrainian drones had been neutralised, Telegram news channel Astra reported explosions near Kazan’s Gorbunov Aviation Plant, which manufactures both civilian and military aircraft including the Tu-160 strategic bombers used by the Russian Air Force. 

Airports in Kazan and Nizhnekamsk suspended flights on Monday morning citing safety concerns following the attack, with Izhevsk Airport, in the neighbouring republic of Udmurtia, following suit later on Monday, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia.

Kazan, which is well over 1,000km from the Ukrainian border, has been subjected to repeated drone strikes over the past month, most dramatically on 21 December when two drones caused massive damage when they flew into a 37-storey residential building. 

The Russian Defence Ministry reported that it had shot down three drones over Tatarstan early on Monday, as well as another 30 over other Russian regions.

Drone wreckage that landed on an industrial site near the city of Kaluga in western Russia caused a fire to break out, Kaluga Governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Monday, though he stressed there had been no casualties.