Ukraine conducted one of the largest and most effective drone attacks of the entire war in the early hours of September 18, causing a blast at a weapons depot deep inside Russia that was large enough to be picked up by earthquake monitoring stations. According to Ukrainian sources, the attack involved more than one hundred domestically produced long-range Ukrainian drones and targeted a major Russian arms storage facility in Toropets, a town in Russia’s Tver region northwest of Moscow.
The Toropets raid was the latest Ukrainian success in an ambitious campaign of long-range drone strikes that has been steadily gaining momentum throughout the current year. Ukraine launched its air offensive in January 2024, and has since hit dozens of high-value targets in Russia including oil refineries, air bases, armament production facilities, and military sites.
The increasing frequency and effectiveness of these drone attacks would appear to vindicate Ukraine’s earlier decision to focus its limited resources on boosting the domestic development and production of long-range drones. Ukrainian attacks are now visibly expanding in scale as more drones are produced, and are also routinely reaching targets deep inside Russia over one thousand kilometers beyond the Ukrainian border.
Voice of Ukraine 