Ukraine says it struck a Russian Geran drone base near Navlya, hitting a drone storage site and a fuel depot

Ukraine’s General Staff said on 29 October that Ukrainian forces struck a Russian drone base near Navlya, in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, hitting a storage facility for Geran-type attack drones, a “drone port” and a fuel and lubricants depot. The claim comes from the Ukrainian side only; no Russian statement on the strike had been found at the time of writing.

What Kyiv says was hit

According to the General Staff’s account, as relayed by Ukrainian outlets that quoted its post, the strikes took place on 28 October and during the night into 29 October. It listed three targets at the Navlya site: the storage facility for Geran drones, the drone port and the fuel and lubricants depot. The General Staff described the base as a place used to prepare and launch drones against Ukraine and said such strikes reduce Russia’s ability to attack Ukraine and its civilian infrastructure with drones.

The same General Staff report named further targets in Bryansk Oblast: two radar stations, near Starodub and near the village of Medvedovo, and drone control points near Savlukovo and Vitovka. It added that the radar hits create gaps in Russian radar coverage. It also reported a strike on an observation post in Donetsk Oblast, near Novohrodivka.

The extent of the damage has not been independently confirmed. Ukrainian media reported that the General Staff’s statement was published on Facebook, which could not be opened from our system, so the details above rest on how Ukrainian outlets reported it.

Not the first strike on Navlya

Ukrainian media report that the Navlya base was targeted before, in early August. The sources differ on the exact date, giving 1 August in one case and 3 August in another, so this article does not state it. Geran is the Russian designation for the Shahed-type one-way attack drone, the type Russia has been launching against Ukrainian cities, as in the overnight attack described in our report on the Dnipro railway station: 13 killed in Russian jet-drone strike on a platform, Ukrainian officials say.

What is not known

Russia’s defence ministry has not, in the material read for this article, commented on the Navlya strike or on the radar sites. Russian claims about the night’s air activity are reported separately when the ministry publishes them. No casualty figures have been given by either side for the Navlya strike.

The report is a claim by one party to the war, and Geopolitiki will cover any Russian response or independent confirmation as a new development.