Putin humiliated as ‘Oreshnik missile plant’ struck | World | News
Vladimir Putin has been dealt a humiliating blow as drones, reportedly from Ukraine, struck a major Russian missile plant.
The strike, which reportedly used Kyiv’s domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles, has caused significant damage to the huge Votkinsk factory – Russia‘s main Iskander-M short range missiles manufacturer. Reports from Russia say 11 people have been injured in the attack.
The factory also produces the much-hyped new Oreshnik medium-range missile which has been used twice against Ukraine.
The plant in Udmurtia region also makes the hulking Topol-M intercontinental strategic missiles. All these missile types are nuclear capable, and key elements of Putin’s military arsenal. Reports say an explosion and “bright flash” were followed by a column of smoke when the strike came.
Putin’s regional head in Udmurtia, Alexander Brechalov, admitted a strike on “one of the objects”, claiming the damage was by long-range drones. Later reports suggest long range Flamingo missiles caused the damage.
The strike provoked fury from Russian war channels over a perceived failure in Putin’s air defences. The 2 Majors channel stated: “Any strike by the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Udmurtia raises some questions about the organisation of air defence work.
“How could this anything have flown more than 1,400 km over our country, bypassing all air defence positioning areas?” In a separate blow to the Kremlin, Ukraine has made large territorial gains on the frontline.
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“I won’t go into too many details, but today I can congratulate our army first and foremost —all the defence forces — because as of today, 300 [square] kilometres [116 square miles] have been liberated,” said Volodymyr Zelensky.
A key factor was Elon Musk halting use of Starlink internet receivers by Russian troops which has kiboshed their frontline communications.
If confirmed, these would be the largest territorial gains for several years by Ukraine. Russia was also revealed to have bombed its own territory in Belgorod region twice since 30 January. The region was hit with FAB-250 and FAB-500 bombs, making eight such cases this year – all failed strikes on Ukraine.
Ukraine also ignited the giant Neftegorsk Gas Processing Plant, owned by Rosneft, with five storage tanks ablaze. Russian strikes left a child, five, a girl, 17, as well as a pensioner, 70, wounded in Sumy in shelling of houses. And Black Sea port Odesa was again hit with damage to a power plant and a school.
