An aircraft-type drone attacked the TANECO oil refinery of the Tatneft company, located in Nizhnekamsk, on the morning of April 2. This enterprise is one of the largest Russian refineries with a capacity of more than 16.2 million tons of oil per year. According to preliminary data, one of the installations was damaged, although the mayor of the city, Ramil Mullin, told Interfax that “the technological process of the enterprise has not been disrupted.” According to Reuters and RBC-Ukraine, the operation was organized by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
Two more UAVs also fell in Tatarstan – in the Alabuga special economic zone, where a drone assembly workshop is located. Local authorities claim that one of the drones with explosives crashed onto the dormitory of the Alabuga Polytech College, injuring about 12 people, two of whom were minors. According to Russian media, the strikes were carried out by UJ-22 Airborne drones, which have a wingspan of 4.6 m and can carry at least 20 kg of explosives. It was previously reported that their maximum flight range is 800 km. Russian military experts suggest that a Cessna 172 light aircraft could have been used for the attack.
Ukrainian engineers have learned to create long-range drones
Aviation expert Anatoly Khrapchinsky believes that the attack used drones of Ukrainian design, capable of covering a distance of up to 2.5 thousand km (theoretically, they can reach enterprises in the Urals) and stay in the airspace for more than 30 hours. According to him, the Ukrainian drone, which looks like a light aircraft, had to travel more than 1,200 km, since it had to go around air defense zones and electronic warfare systems of the Russian Federation. According to CNN, Ukrainian drones use “machine vision,” which allows the aircraft to reach a target autonomously without communication with satellites and move along a given trajectory.
“No, these are not launches from the territory of the Russian Federation, do not underestimate Ukrainian engineers. During two years of a full-scale war, our industry has achieved significant success. Systems that provide radio transparency are also being developed, that is, the drone remains invisible to various detection systems,” says Khrapchinsky. He estimates the monthly production of such drones to be up to 300 units, predicting a gradual increase to 1 thousand units per month.
Russia has failed to create effective defenses against such drones, Munich Security Conference participant Nico Lange told DW: “This is an important psychological point, given that it is difficult for Russian propaganda to counter this fact.” From the point of view of military strategy, according to Lange, Ukraine is able to weaken the Russian offensive by hitting the militarized economy of the aggressor and preventing the regular supply of fuel to the troops, which will create additional opportunities to turn the tide of the war.
Russian kamikaze drones “Geran-2” can be produced in Tatarstan
One of the Ukrainian UAVs allegedly fell on the Alabuga production workshop, where the kamikaze drones “Geran-2” – an almost complete copy of the Iranian “Shahed-136” – could be assembled. Students from the Alabuga Polytech College anonymously told the publications “Protocol” and “RZVRT” about the production of such drones in Tatarstan in 2023. According to them, the labor of several hundred students is used to assemble the drones.
The UAV assembly shop in Alabuga was visited by Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov in January 2023. Local media showed footage of him walking along tables where young people were assembling drones. The description of Minnikhanov’s trip said that the workshop is managed by the Albatross company, a resident of the Alabuga SEZ since 2023.
Drone components are supplied from China
In a story by business-gazeta.ru journalists, it was stated that 25% of the products produced in these hangars are intended for military needs, and the rest are for civilian purposes. According to company representative Ilya Voronkov (he was the general director of Albatross until 2018), only 30% of imported components are used in the production of Russian drones – the engine, servos and cameras are imported from China.
The Albatross legal entity was founded in 2017 and is now almost entirely owned by entrepreneur Alexey Florov. He is also the director of the Geomir engineering center society, which develops software and supplies equipment for drones. The aircraft, according to the website, are used in agriculture, oil and gas, forestry and other fields. According to open data, the company’s products were purchased by the forest guard of the Yaroslavl region, the Nemchinovka research center and the Moscow city search and rescue service on water bodies. The public part of government orders over the last three years of the company’s operation is a little more than 6 million rubles.
The profit of Albatross increased 100 times after the start of the big war in Ukraine
Over the past year, Albatross’ budget has grown many times over, as follows from the company’s financial reports. If until 2022 the company’s net profit was about a million rubles, then in 2023 the figure reached 103 million rubles. Among the company’s contractors there are several enterprises that supply products to the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard. For example, CST LLC, owned 49% by the Kalashnikov concern and 51% by Alexander Zakharov. This company is on the sanctions lists of the EU and the USA, as is Alexander Zakharov, the creator of the Russian Lancet combat drones.
Despite the fact that military supplies are closed to public access, legal proceedings indirectly indicate cooperation with the Ministry of Defense. Thus, over the past few years, the TsST company has received claims from military unit 68240, which deals with orders for the Russian Ministry of Defense. In addition, Albatross leases two cars, information about which is hidden “in accordance with the requirements of Russian Government Decree No. 5.” This usually concerns information from companies included in the military-industrial complex. In February of this year, US sanctions began to apply against the heads of a dozen companies from Tatarstan, including Albatross and Alexey Florov himself.
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2024-04-04 17:41:36