Drones attacked Sterlitamak in Russia’s Bashkortostan on 29 October, and smoke rose over the Bashkir Soda Company, Russian Telegram channel Astra reported, citing its open-source analysis. The city’s mayor admitted debris fell on an unnamed plant.

Ukraine’s long-range drones keep reaching deeper into the industries that feed Russia’s war. In the past five days, a nitric acid maker in Tula Oblast, a rocket-fuel rubber plant in Samara Oblast, and a titanium plant in the Urals came under attack. The Sterlitamak plant lies about 1,310 km from the front line. Drones also attacked it on 27 August, Astra says. Ukraine has not commented.

The plant is Russia’s only maker of a compound for armor fibers

The Bashkir Soda Company is Russia’s largest producer of soda ash and baking soda, and part of the Roskhim chemical holding. It is also Russia’s only maker of terephthaloyl chloride, The Insider reported, citing the company’s website. The website also mentions deliveries to the defense industry.

The compound goes into aramid fibers, Kevlar-type materials used for body armor, helmets, and armor for military vehicles and aircraft, Astra said. Astra also says the company sits on the Russian Industry and Trade Ministry’s closed register of defense enterprises.

The attack began around dawn. Ukrainian Telegram channel Exilenova+ posted footage of a drone over the city. Supernova+, another Ukrainian monitoring channel, posted the plant’s coordinates and photos of smoke. Russia’s aviation agency restricted flights at the airport of Ufa, the region’s capital. Pro-Ukrainian X account Maks 26 shared footage of the attacks on Sterlitamak and Luhansk. It also suggested that Sterlitamak’s Syntez-Kauchuk rubber plant may have been the target, and claimed a fire at the Marinovka air base in Volgograd Oblast.

After the attack by Ukrainian drones, a fire was recorded in the area of ​​the Marinovka military airfield in the Volgograd region.

The Defense Forces also attacked Bashkortostan. Bashkir Soda Company in Sterlitamak or Syntez-Kauchuk JSC could have been hit.

In… pic.twitter.com/SIJ1vR8395

— MAKS 26 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) October 29, 2026

Mayor Emil Shaimardanov claimed air defenses downed all seven drones over the city. An earlier version of his post, quoted by Russian state news agency TASS, said eight.

“Debris fell on the territory of one of the enterprises. Minor damage was caused, the plant is operating normally,” Shaimardanov claimed.

He did not name the plant.

The Insider said NASA’s FIRMS fire map confirmed a fire at the plant. But the map shows only the weak heat source its satellites record there almost every night, the last time hours before the drones came, and nothing new after the attack.

Moscow and other regions under attack

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed that 613 drones flew toward the Moscow region overnight, that most were downed on the far approaches, and that 231 were downed on approach to the capital. Russia’s aviation agency restricted flights at Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it downed 1,214 drones over 19 regions overnight.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit a depot of Geran drones, Russia’s version of the Iranian Shahed, along with a drone launch site and a fuel depot near Navlya in Bryansk Oblast, about 70 km from the Ukrainian border. The Atesh partisan movement reported a loud explosion near Oryol’s airfield and a large fire in Lipetsk, about 285 km from the border.

Explosions in occupied Crimea, power cuts in occupied Luhansk

Subscribers of Crimean monitoring channel Krymsky Veter reported drones and then a strong explosion with Russian air defenses firing in Krasnoperekopsk, in occupied Crimea, about 95 km from the front line.

In occupied Luhansk, about 105 km from the front line, residents reported another attack on Lugacom, the occupation’s mobile operator, and internet outages followed, Exilenova+ said. The channel named only Lugacom. The operator sits in the seized Ukrtelecom building. Exilenova+ also posted footage of a fire in the city.

pic.twitter.com/Pihyr8Y0EL

— Exilenova+ (@Exilenova_plus) October 29, 2026

Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of Luhansk Oblast, claimed that 150,000 customers in six municipalities lost power after attacks on energy facilities.

A fire broke out in the area of a major Russian steel plant in Lipetsk late on 27 October, Kyiv time, as air defenses fired at incoming targets, the Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ reported. Ukrainian partisans said the strike may have hit the plant. The region’s governor denied any large industrial fire.

Whether or not it was hit, the plant matters to Ukraine. The Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant (NLMK) is Russia’s only producer of electrical steel, Ukrainska Pravda reported in April 2025. NLMK’s tax records, obtained by the outlet, showed sales of that steel to Moscow’s Avangard plant, which builds missiles for S-400 air defense systems. Russia also fires those missiles at ground targets in Ukraine.

Pantsir fires, no visible hit

The targets over Lipetsk were jet-powered, Exilenova+ wrote, citing preliminary reports of impacts and a fire toward the city’s airfield. Footage it posted showed a Pantsir air defense system firing, and the channel suggested the system may have failed to cope. It then reported the fire near NLMK, blaming air defense fire or a falling object.

We also observe a fire in the vicinity of NLMK (Novolipetsk Metallurgical Combine) resulting from air defense activity or the impact of an object. pic.twitter.com/7bBqyqCP2j

— Exilenova+ (@Exilenova_plus) October 27, 2026

The Crimean Tatar-Ukrainian partisan movement Atesh said its agents in Lipetsk reported an impact, and in a follow-up said they believe it may have hit NLMK.

Contracts and denials

A 2022 investigation by Disclose and its partners tied 18 NLMK contracts, all signed after 2014, to eight Russian defense firms, including an S-300 maker. NLMK confirmed the contracts but said only a “negligible” amount of civilian steel grades went to those firms.

On 28 October, Lipetsk Oblast Governor Igor Artamonov claimed air defenses downed 45 drones over the oblast overnight. He insisted reports of a large industrial fire were untrue, saying drone debris fell in a tree belt and sparked a fire, since contained. Debris also blew out windows in a Lipetsk apartment block, and one person sought medical help but needed no hospitalization, he added. Whether NLMK took any damage remains unconfirmed.

Earlier strikes on weapons suppliers

Earlier, UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles reportedly struck a battery plant in Yelets, in the same oblast, on 25 October. Two days before that, they reportedly hit an electronics plant in Oryol. OSINT channels described both as suppliers of parts for Russian missiles.

Ukrainian drones damaged a process pipeline, two butyl-rubber units, and a rectification (distillation) unit at Russia’s Tolyattikauchuk petrochemical plant on 24 October, Ukraine’s General Staff said on 26 October. The damage hits the production chain of solid rocket fuel for tactical and ballistic missiles, it added.

The strike was part of a string of Ukrainian hits on Russian plants over four days, most of which the General Staff links to missile production. Ukraine hit an electronics plant in Oryol on 23 October and struck a battery plant in Yelets on 25 October or the following night. The General Staff ties both to missiles: Oryol makes components for missiles Russia fires at Ukrainian cities, and Yelets makes batteries for Iskander-M systems. Then, overnight on 26 October, drones also went after Voronezhsintezkauchuk, another Russian synthetic-rubber plant. For Tolyattikauchuk, this is the third time this year that strikes have reached its butyl-rubber shops.

What Kyiv and Russian officials say

The General Staff first confirmed the strike on 24 October with a report of an explosion and fire near the plant. It said the plant makes synthetic rubbers, monomers, fractions, and high-octane gasoline additives, and that its synthetic rubbers are used in solid rocket fuel.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have not named the plant in their statements. However, Tolyatti Mayor Ilya Sukhikh claimed that industrial facilities were damaged and, citing preliminary data, that no one was killed or injured, Russian outlet Expert reported.

What OSINT channels report

Drones hit at least two production facilities, Ukrainian monitoring channel Exilenova+ said. One is the shop where isobutane is turned into isobutylene, a raw material for synthetic rubbers. The other is outdoor unit No. 2 in shop BK-4, which produces and purifies high-purity isobutylene for butyl rubber.

The damage could delay rubber output and the supply of feedstock for other processes, including solid rocket fuel. Tolyattikauchuk can make about 260,000 metric tons of synthetic rubber a year, OSINT-Varta data show.

Hit again and again

Tolyattikauchuk had come under fire before. Overnight on 4 April, about 10 drones reached the plant by various accounts. Footage showed fires at storage shops D-12 and D-1 and at the BK-2, BK-3, and BK-4 units, though more sites may have been hit, the analysts added. Ukrainian forces struck the plant again on 12 June, the General Staff confirmed.

Then, on 12 September, a strike set fires at the BK-2, BK-3, and BK-4 shops, an OSINT community Absolutely Reliable Source reported. Without those shops running steadily, the line that makes MTBE, a key high-octane gasoline additive, is cut, the channel noted.

Ukrainian missiles reportedly struck a factory in the city of Oryol on 23 October, with OSINT projects reporting that the target was the Proton electronics plant, which produces components used in Russian weapons systems.

The strike comes amid Ukraine’s broader campaign to target Russian military production facilities and other infrastructure supporting Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Ukrainian strikes on such facilities aim to weaken Russia’s ability to manufacture and maintain the weapons it uses in its invasion.

The plant reportedly supplies electronic components for Iskander-M ballistic missiles, which Russia regularly uses to attack Ukrainian cities, as well as other weapons systems, including the Pantsir-S1 air defense system. 

The strike could disrupt production supporting Russia’s war effort. Photos show extensive damage to the building. Information about casualties remains unclear. 

Reports say a Ukrainian missile strike hit the Proton electronics plant in Russia’s Oryol on 23 October.

The facility reportedly produces components for Iskander-M ballistic missiles used in attacks on Ukrainian cities, as well as other Russian weapons systems.

Exilenova+… pic.twitter.com/nbqGPJ8EJj

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) October 23, 2026

Plant reportedly produces components for Russian weapons

Proton JSC manufactures semiconductor devices, LEDs, and electronic components for industrial and specialized equipment. According to Exilenova+, the plant’s products are used in the production of Iskander-M ballistic missiles, S-71 Kover missiles, and the Pantsir-S1 air defense system.

Exilenova+ reported that the plant was struck by Storm Shadow cruise missiles. The weapon type has not been independently confirmed, and the extent of damage to the facility remains unknown.

Russian authorities confirm strike on factory

Oryol Oblast Governor Andrey Klychkov announced a missile threat in the region before reporting that missiles had struck a factory in Oryol’s Sovetsky District, according to Liga.net.

Residents reported explosions, a fire in one part of the city, and columns of smoke rising over Oryol, according to local reports cited by OSINT projects Exilenova+, Supernova, and Astra.