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The New York Times (NYT) reported that the Ukrainian military attacked a Russian oil refinery and munitions factory over 684 miles (1,100 km) away from the border using drones on April 2nd.
The NYT reported that the oil refinery and munitions factory in the Tatarstan region of Russia, about 700 miles (1,127km) away from Ukrainian territory, each exploded due to drone attacks. Ukrainian media and military experts have evaluated this drone attack as the longest-range strike on Russian territory since the outbreak of the war on February 24, 2022.
A Ukrainian official announced that domestically produced drones could now hit targets beyond 621 miles (1,000 km).
The Ukrainian military’s farthest attack from its own territory was last January, targeting an oil depot not far from Saint Petersburg, Russia, about 530 miles (853 km) away. At that time, Oleksandr Kamyshin, the Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries, said that the drone flew in a zigzag towards the target, so it actually flew much further.
Russia built the destroyed munitions factory to produce the “Geran-2,“ a long-range attack drone based on Iran’s Shahed design.
Videos posted online showed people jumping to the ground as the explosion sounded, and a passerby could be heard shouting, “A drone attacked the factory,” the NYT reported.
However, Russian officials claimed that a Ukrainian drone attacked a factory dormitory in the Tatarstan region.
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The NYT assessed that the attack on the oil refinery was the 18th time since last October when Ukraine began targeting Russian oil refineries with long-range drones, aiming to weaken Russia’s refining capabilities and temporarily halt gasoline exports.
Mykhailo Fedorov, a senior Ukrainian official overseeing drone production, revealed in an interview with the German daily Welt published this week that Ukraine’s drone attacks have often been staged with two to six drones.
He stated, “Ukraine has already caught up with Russia in terms of the scale of long-range drone production,” and “Thousands have already been produced, and something is burning somewhere in Russian territory almost every day.”
However, the NYT evaluated that Russia still has a vast advantage in long-range missiles and drones.
The NYT reported that according to Ukrainian reports, Russia has launched at least 4,540 Shahed long-range drones at military targets, energy infrastructure, and cities in Ukraine since the war broke out.
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