Reporting From Ukraine:https://www.youtube.com/@RFU/videosExcerpts from the video transcript:
Ukrainian Bombs Rip Through Strategic Russian Base, Producing up to 9,000 Drones/Month!
Today [ Apr 25, 8 pm ], there are a lot of interesting updates from the Russian Federation. Here, flying deep behind enemy lines, Ukrainian long-range drones delivered a devastating blow to the only Russian Shahed production facility. Long-range drones loaded with 250 kilogram bombs tore through the final assembly line, throwing all Russian strike plans into disarray. The Ukrainian strike happened at Yelabuga, located over 1,200 km away from the frontline. The Ukrainians used 6 drones for the strike on the main Shahed assembly facility, of which 5 Ukrainian drones managed to reach and directly strike their target despite Russian air defenses being present.
The strike led to severe damage to the final assembly line of the drone production facility, creating a bottleneck and disrupting the entire production process within the factory. This assembly is the most technologically complex segment, without which the rest of the drone production process cannot be completed. Targeting this facility hampers Russia's ability to produce new Shaheds, thereby severely impacting its ability to continue its daily drone strikes on Ukraine. For the strike, Ukrainians used small A-22 light training planes repurposed as drones to strike critical Russian military and economic infrastructure far beyond the frontline. These drones have a maximum flight range of over 1,500 km, with integrated GPS inertial guidance to conduct precision strikes. Each of these drones has an integrated payload of 250 kg, able to collapse the facility's roof, already damaging production machinery, which was then followed by the next drone striking the factory floor itself, finishing the job. The destruction of the assembly line at the Alabuga facility throws a massive wrench into Russian plans
... Russians continued to increase their production output, launching a massively increased number of Shahed drone strikes in the past 6 months. This number could have risen to 9,000 by the end of April ... The strike on the Alabuga plant was additionally prompted by the recent Russian development of an analogue to Ukraine’s Palianytsia jet-propelled drone. The upgraded Shahed, called the Geranium-3, features a turbojet engine for increased speed, raising from 200 kph to 600. This enhancement makes it much harder for Ukrainian mobile air defense units to intercept them, primarily relying on truck-mounted machine guns and autocannons to take down the Shaheds ...Destroying Russian production capabilities before these drones could be produced and implemented on a larger scale was a strategic play to prevent the Russians from exploiting weak spots in Ukrainian air defense, while the laser air defense is still in the early stages ...
Ukrainians have many potential targets to hit, they must choose wisely, due to the amount of time needed to plan and set conditions for such complex aerial operations, making it impossible to strike every location simultaneously ... the strike demonstrates Ukraine's constant awareness of potential Russian threats, making educated decisions on which facilities to hit with the most urgency, to achieve the most significant effect.
