On the night of Tuesday, January 21, Ukrainian drones attacked the Smolensk region, as reported by local residents on Telegram channels. This marks the most intense drone strike on the area since the onset of the war.
Preliminary information indicates that the targets of the strikes were an aircraft manufacturing plant in the Zadneprovsky district of Smolensk and a refinery located in the city of Yartsevo. This information has not been officially confirmed.
According to the Telegram channel Baza, as a result of the drone attack, a fire broke out on the roof of a building on Avtozavodskaya Street. Subsequently, the facade of a house on Borodinskaya Street caught fire. Windows were shattered in both buildings.
A third fire occurred in the industrial zone near the Smolensk aircraft factory, which produces Su-25 attack aircraft, as well as Kh-55 and Kh-59 missiles — used for strikes on Ukraine. The factory is included in the sanctions lists of the USA, Canada, Ukraine, Japan, Switzerland, and the European Union.
The governor of the Smolensk region, Vasily Anokhin, acknowledged the attack on the region but did not provide further details. According to him, there were no casualties, but two residential buildings were damaged.
He specified that 17 drones were shot down in the sky over the region.
"On the ground and on the roofs of some buildings, fires were reported due to debris from UAVs. Windows of residential houses were also damaged," he stated.
Vasily Anokhin also wrote that unreliable information might circulate online, which "could be a part of an information war," and urged people not to trust it.
Additionally, on the night of January 21, there were reports of drone attacks and air defense operations in the Rostov, Voronezh, Saratov, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions. The airports in Kazan and Ulyanovsk temporarily suspended flights.
The Russian Ministry of Defense reported the interception of 68 Ukrainian drones over Russian territories.