An apocalyptic explosion ripped through a building in Russia overnight obliterating a factory thought to have been manufacturing drones and guns for Putin’s bloodthirsty war against Ukraine.
Smoke illuminated by the red and orange of an inferno engulfed the skyline of the city of Izhevsk on February 17 as firefighters desperately tried to combat the mammoth blaze.
It’s reported the factory, owned by a member of the Kalashnikov firearms dynasty, was manufacturing weapons including Granat-4 drones, which are used for surveillance and to assist artillery fire.
It’s not known if the cause of the fire at the facility was deliberate, but any loss of production is likely to hamper Putin’s efforts to push forward any advantage from unseasonably warm weather on the battlefield at the moment in Ukraine.
Izhevsk Unmanned Systems Research And Production Associated LLC secured a contract to produce the drones in June last year, according to reports, but sanctions imposed by the West had been stalling production in recent months.
Several of the unmanned drones have been shot down and photographed by Ukrainian forces. The remote devices are used primarily to spy on troop positions and coordinate artillery and rocket fire.
The city of Izhevsk is famous in Russia for the production of weapons, most notably the famous Kalashnikov rifle which is still widely used by armies and terrorist groups around the world.
Russia has been taking advantage of warm weather conditions to make some gains on the 600-mile-long frontline with Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian commander in chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said his forces were withdrawing from the besieged Avdiivka, in the Donetsk Oblast in the east of the country, after it has been all but destroyed in fighting.
He said: “Our soldiers performed their military duty with dignity, did everything possible to destroy the best Russian military units, [and] inflicted significant losses on the enemy in terms of manpower and equipment. The life of military personnel is [of] the highest value.”
