After today's drone attack on Tatarstan, a republic within the Russian Federation, the "sanitary zone” that needs to be established for the security of the Russian Federation has grown to 1,200 kilometers and now stretches to Lviv.
On April 2, Ukrainian drones attacked several facilities in Tatarstand: Alabuga special economic zone in Yelabuga and the oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk.
The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, said that the technological process of enterprises in the special economic zone (one of which, as follows from open sources, assembles Geran attack drones) was not disrupted. Twelve people — all of them students, were hurt as a result of the attack.
Judging by the videos that appeared on the Internet, one of the drones visually resembles the Aeroprakt A-22 light aircraft. Projects to convert such aircraft into drones exist in many countries. A Cessna aircraft or a biplane could become a kamikaze UAV. In addition to Ukraine, the A-22 is assembled in Poland.
The other UAV was apparently the UJ-22 Airborne UAV, developed by Ukrainian company Ukrjet. The drone carries at least 20 kilograms of explosives, has a wingspan of 4.6 meters, and a flight range of up to 800 kilometres.
Needless to say that no one expected such a sensitive attack at a huge-more than 1,200 kilometres-distance from Ukraine. It is likely that protective measures will now be taken to protect such important facilities. It is worthy of note that the United States added the Alabuga special economic zone and its top management to the sanctions list.
Another attack took place in the city of Nizhnekamsk. The drone was suppressed by electronic warfare, crashed on the territory of Taneco oil refinery and damaged one of the units of the refinery. Drone strikes on refineries have become increasingly frequent in Russia during the recent weeks, but they do not cause major destruction.
Kyiv coordinates drone attacks with the United States to attack infrastructure facilities in Russia and provides information to bypass air defence control zones.
Sensors installed on drones are capable of determining the positions and types of air defence systems based on their visual portraits and radiation parameters of their radars. Accuracy is ensured through the use of artificial intelligence. Each unmanned aircraft is equipped with satellite and terrain data terminal computer.
"The attacks have been made possible by the use of drones with longer ranges and more advanced capabilities, some of which have even begun to integrate a basic form of artificial intelligence to help them navigate and avoid being jammed," the article said.
According to the first version, the drones arrived from Ukraine. They could also be launched from the territory of Russia or from Kazakhstan.
The first version is the most popular one. If this is so, then after today's attack on Yelabuga, the "sanitary zone”, which, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, must be established to stop attacks on the Russian Federation, has grown to 1,200 kilometres and will now stretch to Lviv.
The head of the State Duma Defence Committee Andrei Kartapolov said that the lawlessness with drone attacks would end when the Russian forces take Kyiv.”
Yet, in Ukraine they believe that this is only a beginning of bigger chaos.