Smoke was seen rising over Yelabuga city in Russia’s Tatarstan Republic on Sunday, June 15, amid drone attacks that reportedly targeted a Shahed drone manufacturing plant.

Local Telegram channels, including Astra, suggested the Alabuga plant, known for producing Shahed drones, may have been struck. Multiple videos posted on social media show smoke billowing from areas allegedly near the facility.

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“An air threat regime was declared in the region at 06:30. According to locals, drones were spotted in Chistopol and Yelabuga,” Russian media reported.

Flights were temporarily restricted at three Russian airports on Sunday morning – Izhevsk, Kazan, and Nizhnekamsk. Izhevsk and Kazan are in Tatarstan, while Nizhnekamsk is the capital of the Udmurtia Republic.

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The drones themselves were also captured on video during the attack.

According to the Baza Telegram channel, one person was killed and 13 were injured. The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, indirectly confirmed the strike, saying a drone had hit an “automobile plant” and naming the same casualty figures, although no official statement about a drone attack was issued.

“During the interception of a UAV, debris fell on the checkpoint building of the automobile plant in the Yelabuga district. As a result, one worker was killed, and 13 people were injured,” Minnikhanov wrote on his Telegram.

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He said that one of the injured was in serious condition, while the others received necessary medical care. A fire also broke out at the plant but was quickly extinguished.

The General Staff of Ukraine confirmed that one of Russia’s strike UAV production sites was hit.

“On June 15, units of the Special Operations Forces (SSO), in cooperation with other components of the Defense Forces, struck a key facility of the Russian aggressor’s military-industrial complex,” the report shared on Telegram stated.

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According to the General Staff, the target was a UAV production site in Yelabuga, which the Russians use to manufacture, test, and launch strike drones against Ukraine, including attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure.

“It has been confirmed that the strike successfully reached the target area. The results are being clarified,” the statement added.

The Alabuga facility, built in 2023 in the Alabuga special economic zone, is widely reported to produce Shahed attack drones. Alabuga is the largest industrial special economic zone in Russia, located near Yelabuga, Naberezhnye Chelny, and Nizhnekamsk.

It spans nearly 4,000 hectares and is controlled by the Ministry of Land and Property Relations of the Republic of Tatarstan.

As of 2019, Alabuga accounted for over half of the total revenue, a third of tax contributions, and nearly 40% of private investment among all special economic zones in Russia.

This is not the first time Yelabuga has come under drone attack. The first reported strike occurred in April 2024 and was attributed to Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR). Additional drone strikes hit the city in April and May this year.

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Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, previously stated that in 2024, Russia produced over 6,000 Shahed drones and thousands of decoy UAVs at Alabuga. The production target this year is reportedly set at 8,000-10,000 combat drones and 15,000 decoy drones.

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In Russian airports, due to the threat of drone attacks, a collapse has occurred. In Moscow and St. Petersburg alone, nearly 100 flights were canceled and hundreds more were delayed, RBC-Ukraine reports, referring to Russian Telegram channels.

According to Baza, the worst situation is at Sheremetyevo Airport near Moscow. There, over 170 flights were delayed, and almost 50 were canceled.

As a result, overcrowding arose. Passengers who have arrived are mixing with those who have not yet left the airport. People are forced to sit and lie on the floor, since there are no free seats even in cafes and business lounges.

In addition, passengers from arriving planes are not being allowed out of the cabin. According to some of them, they have been sitting there for over four hours.

The situation is no better at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport. There, over 30 flights were canceled, and about 100 more delayed. Moreover, the airport suspended operations due to the threat of drone attacks. In this connection, one of the planes that managed to take off from Sheremetyevo returned back to Moscow.

Delays and cancellations were also recorded at other airports in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and other cities.

For his part, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reported about two allegedly downed drones flying toward the Russian capital.

Drone attack on Russia

This night, several regions of Russia were also under threat of drone attacks. At least in the Voronezh and Saratov regions, as well as in the Chuvash Republic, Russians complained of explosions.

In the morning, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that the Defense Forces of Ukraine attacked the Borisoglebsk airfield in the Voronezh region. In particular, the enemy Su-34, Su-35S, and Su-30SM aircraft are based there.

Due to the attack, a warehouse with guided aerial bombs was hit, as well as a combat training aircraft and, probably, other aircraft.

Furthermore, as previously reported, the Defense Forces of Ukraine attacked an enterprise in the Chuvash Republic. This refers to the facility of the JSC VNIIR-Progress, which produces antenna arrays for Shahed drones, Iskander missiles, and other precision weapons.

Russia’s largest airports experienced hours-long flight delays and cancellations on July 5, as authorities imposed temporary restrictions due to a reported threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Shot reported.

Ukraine hasn’t commented on the report. Kyiv’s drone campaign, which has increasingly disrupted civilian air travel in Russia, is part of Ukraine’s broader strategy to undermine Russia’s logistics far beyond the front line.

Some passengers in Russia reported waiting more than 10 hours on July 5 as their flights were being delayed, according to Shot.

Departures at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport were halted for several hours, delaying over 20 flights. At St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport, roughly 50 flights were delayed and more than 20 canceled.

Leningrad Oblast Governor Alexander Drozdenko said that two drones were shot down south of St. Petersburg, prompting a temporary suspension of operations at Pulkovo Airport.

The disruptions followed a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks overnight, which targeted military and industrial infrastructure in at least six Russian regions.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it intercepted 42 drones within three hours, mainly over the Belgorod, Bryansk, and Kursk oblasts near the Ukrainian border.

Novaya Gazeta Europe reported in May that at least 217 temporary airport closures have occurred across Russia since Jan. 1 due to drone threats, more than in 2023 and 2024 combined.

A similar wave of strikes ahead of Russia’s Victory Day in May led to massive delays, affecting an estimated 60,000 travelers.

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