Ukrainian drones hit Russian steel plant, causing serious fire
Ukrainian drones struck a major Russian steel factory , the NLKM Steel Plant, overnight, causing a huge fire, a Kiev source said on Saturday, on the second anniversary of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine .
The governor of Russia's Lipetsk region identified the plant in the city of Lipetsk, about 400 km north of the Ukrainian border, as being responsible for about 18 percent of Russia's steel production.
The politician also confirmed that a fire apparently caused by a drone attack had been put out at the plant, operated by the Russian Novolipetsk steelmaker, and that there were no casualties. “There is no significant impact on the plant's operations,” he added Saturday evening.
However, from the filtered videos, the fires appear to have been intense, even if it is difficult to assess the actual impact on the plant's production and the extent of the damage:
The Ukrainian source told Reuters that the attack, a joint operation by military intelligence GUR and the security service SBU, caused a major fire and personnel were evacuated. “The raw materials of this enterprise are used for the production of Russian missiles, artillery and drones. Therefore, it is a legitimate target for Ukraine,” the source said, without specifying the location of the facility.
NLMK said on social media that the fire broke out at 1.40am on Friday. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Production at the plant was suspended while an investigation team worked on site, a source familiar with the matter said. Visible damage was not significant, the source added
The Lipetsk plant specializes in flat steel and produces 80% of NLMK's steel products.
Ukrainian drone attacks against Russian military and industrial targets have become increasingly frequent in recent months, particularly targeting oil facilities that Kyiv says are vital to the Russian war effort, but Ukrainian sources had never claimed responsibility for an attack on a steel plant.
In October 2022, NLMK stated that its operations in Russia were not capable of producing military-grade heavy steels and that they did not supply products to the army, only rolled steel strips for civilian use. Therefore the attack would not affect Russian military activities, but could, if effective, affect civilian production.
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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/droni-ucraini-colpiscono-acciaieria-russa-causando-grave-incendio/ on Sun, 25 Feb 2024 08:00:10 +0000.