Military & Defense
Ukraine says it struck the Energia battery plant in Yelets, which it calls Russia’s sole maker of glide-bomb guidance batteries
Ukraine’s General Staff says it hit the Energia plant in Russia’s Lipetsk region on 25-26 October and caused a fire; Russia has not commented and the claim is unverified.
Ukraine’s General Staff said on 26 October that its forces struck the Energia plant in Yelets, in Russia’s Lipetsk region, on 25 October and overnight into 26 October, and that a fire broke out on the premises. Kyiv describes the factory as the only Russian maker of batteries for the guidance and correction modules of aerial bombs. These are Ukrainian claims; the Kyiv Independent reported that the Russian defence ministry had not responded and that the claim could not be independently verified.
What the General Staff says the plant makes
According to the General Staff’s statement, as relayed by Ukrinform, Energia also produces batteries used in Iskander-M operational-tactical missile systems and in sea-launched cruise missiles. The General Staff said the strike “complicates” Russian production of power sources for missiles, guided aerial bombs and other weapons. It did not say what weapons were used or how much damage was done. The Kyiv Independent put the plant about 250 kilometres from the Ukrainian border.
Part of a wider campaign on defence industry
In the same statement the General Staff also said that on 23 October Ukrainian forces destroyed the main microchip production workshop of the Proton-Electrotex enterprise in Oryol, which it said would complicate Russian production of components for cruise and ballistic missiles. Geopolitiki covered that attack and a strike on the Tolyatti rubber plant in Ukraine strikes Oryol and Tolyatti plants linked to Russian missile production; governor reports three dead in Oryol, including the Oryol governor’s own account of casualties.
Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian defence plants, airfields and refineries far from the front, the Kyiv Independent noted. No Russian statement on Yelets had been published at the time of writing, and no Russian casualty figure for the incident has been found. The General Staff’s account was relayed by Ukrinform.