Massive Ukrainian drone strikes on October 26 hit the Russian industrial city of Voronezh, crippling the factory that builds President Vladimir Putin's elite Il-96 'Flying Kremlin' jets and igniting fires across the city. The attack killed three people and injured 17, according to an initial toll.
Attack drones targeted the Voronezh Joint-Stock Company for Aircraft Manufacturing (VASO), which produces the president's long-haul Il-96 planes, also often referred to as "doomsday planes," as well as key components for multiple airliners. A petrochemical complex, Voronezhsintezkauchuk, which has military links, was also hit. The plant makes durable tyres for armoured personnel carriers, trucks and mobile launch systems, as well as landing gear wheels for combat aircraft, heat-resistant seals and hoses for tank engines and binding components for solid rocket fuel.
Fires and damage across the city
A witness, Dmitry, reported "loud explosions" along with "flames and thick black smoke rising into the sky". A prominent business centre and shopping complex tower was ignited in fire, and residential districts were seen ablaze, possibly from downed drones. The strategic Northern Bridge across the Voronezh River was also attacked, and an Anapa-to-Moscow tourist train was damaged, wounding five passengers.
More than 70 drones were shot down directly over Voronezh, said Governor Alexander Gusev. The debris from these is believed to have triggered fires in residential buildings.
Strikes on railways and airports
Separately, a Ukrainian drone struck a freight train travelling from Russia to Belarus in the Bryansk region, killing the 44-year-old locomotive engineer. Unexplained explosions hit a fuel train on a line linked to the Trans-Siberian Railway - the world's longest non-stop train - in the Sverdlovsk region, igniting seven diesel wagons and derailing 20 carriages. An investigation into possible sabotage by pro-Ukrainian forces is under way. Fires raged across 16,146 square feet near Russia's fourth-largest city, Yekaterinburg.
In another blow to Putin, Moscow's four airports today continued to experience repeated operational disruptions amid drone alerts.
Ceasefire context and Russian counterstrikes
The strikes came as peace talks are due to start early next month and ahead of a limited ceasefire - due to start on Tuesday (October 27) - brokered by US First Lady Melania Trump in the humanitarian disaster zone of Oleshky.
Russia also struck Ukraine with painful hits in overnight attacks. Russian Geran-4 jet-drones targeted five dry cargo ships in the western Black Sea. The Ukrainian port of Chernomorsk was under sustained Russian drone attack, while a shopping centre in Zaporizhzhia was also hit, with casualties reported. Nearly a dozen people were injured in a Russian attack on Zaporizhzhia.
