Major Russian Microchip Factory Which Supplies Military Halts Production After Drone Attack

Ukrainian sources say that Russia was hit with over 50 explosions at oil and industrial targets as it launched a massive new drone attack Friday. This included a direct overnight hit on Russia’s Ryazan Oil Refinery and the Ryazan Thermal Power Plant, leaving parts of them on fire.

“As a result of the strikes, fires broke out at the production facilities of the Ryazan Oil Refining Company and at the Ryazan oil pumping station,” a statement from the General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said. This is Russia’s largest refinery as it has capacity of 17 million metric tons of oil annually. Ryazan lies a little over 300 miles from the Ukraine border.

While oil depots and energy infrastructure have been a frequent target of drone attacks on Russian territory throughout much of the war, the attack included rare serious damage to a chip plant which supplies the Russian military and weapons systems.

“Also, the microelectronics plant ‘Kremniy El’ in Bryansk was hit. This is one of the key enterprises of the microelectronics industry of Russia,” the Ukraine military statement indicated.

Representatives of the Kremniy El microchip plant subsequently confirmed the strike which resulted in damage, halting production. “Six drones [struck Kremniy El] on the night of Jan. 24, damaging part of the production facilities and the finished products warehouse,” the plant’s press service told TASS.

The statement indicated further the attack disrupted the plant’s power supply and assembly lines, but there have been no reports of casualties. There were two prior drone strikes on the facility earlier in the nearly three-year long war.

According to background on the plant from a regional source:

Kremniy El, one of Russia’s largest microelectronics manufacturers, employs 1,700 people and has an annual production volume of 3.9 billion rubles ($39.7 million).

The plant supplies 94% of its production to the Russian Defense Ministry, including components for the Pantsir and S-500 missile systems, as well as Kalibr cruise missiles, according to local media reports.

A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry described that at least 121 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight by air defense systems, with a big concentration of them being over the Bryansk region.

Massive blasts rocked the sprawling Ryazan oil refinery overnight:

While Ukraine is losing ground along the frontlines in Donetsk region, it has upped its large-scale drone and missile operations on Russian territory – but this has made no real strategic difference on the battlefield.

Still, Ukraine’s military in a statement added that the “systematic and targeted destruction of facilities” supplying the Russian military will continue “until the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine is completely stopped.”

Ukraine wants to degrade and destroy Russia’s military-industrial defense sector, but overall the sector remains vast enough that such cross-border drone attacks will barely put a dent in it. However, these attacks do make life harder on the population, and may present a long-term economic toll.