Even Russians Don’t Know HOW Ukraine Pulled Off This Deep Strike

Ukraine has struck deep inside Russia, hitting a key defense industry facility in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. The target was a plant critical to producing components for some of Russia’s most advanced missiles. This precision drone strike is part of Ukraine’s wider strategy to degrade Russia’s military capabilities at their source, disrupting production lines far from the front.

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About 470 miles away from Ukraine’s border with 
Russia lies Arzamas (ahr-zah-MAHS). Nestled in the Nizhny Novgorod (NEEZH-nee NOHV-guh-rahd) oblast, 
Arzamas is home to a component manufacturing plant that produces systems used in some of Russia’s 
most powerful missiles. No components mean no missiles, making the plant an obvious target for 
Ukraine. Distance isn’t an issue. How do we know? Ukraine has just obliterated one of Russia’s most 
important strategic factories with a deep strike blast. Even the Russians don’t know how Ukraine 
managed to pull this off. But they do know that they’ll have far fewer missiles with which to 
hit Ukraine in the future. Euromaidan Press was among the first media outlets to report on 
the strike, writing on August 11 that Ukrainian drones managed to score direct hits on the Arzamas 
Instrument-Making plant the night before. Ukraine made sure it launched the attack in the dead 
of night, with NewsSky reporting that the first reports of incoming drones were made at around 
1:30 a.m. There are two purposes behind such late-night strikes. First, moving under the cover 
of darkness makes Ukraine’s drones much harder to detect. They can still be spotted by radar, 
assuming they fly within a radar system’s coverage area. However, people on the ground struggle 
to see the drones until it’s far too late, eliminating a potential early warning system that 
would allow Russia to prepare for Ukraine’s drone attacks. As for the second reason, that’s far 
more devastating to the collective Russian psyche: Ukraine hits hard during the early hours to make 
sure civilians have to wake up and see the war Vladimir Putin started landing on their doorstep. 
Of course, Ukraine isn’t hitting civilian locations directly. That’s a distinctly Russian 
tactic that Putin has used to create terror in Ukraine’s cities since he launched his invasion. 
Rather, Ukraine hits legitimate military targets that just happen to be close enough to Russian 
cities to force air raid sirens to blare and warnings to be delivered. Every strike like the 
one we’ve just seen in Arzamas is a reminder to Russia’s people that their country is not only at 
war, but fighting against a nation that has the ability to strike deep inside Russia. NewsSky 
reports that the first loud sounds resembling explosions came from the Arzamas factory 
at about 2 am, with most seeming to come from the direction of the facility’s warehouses. 
Flashes of fire. Heavy smoke. The telltale hum of incoming drones. All were reported by the Arzamas 
residents who were awoken by the strike. Local air defenses activated to try to take Ukraine’s drones 
down. They may have succeeded a handful of times, but NewsSky says that at least two of the drones 
broke through Russia’s defenses to deliver their explosive payloads to the components factory. 
The strike will leave Russia questioning just how Ukraine managed to pull it off. The Arzamas 
plant was supposed to be safe. Around 470 miles behind the border, it was meant to be far enough 
away for Russian air defenses to respond early to any incoming threat. But, as has been so 
often the case over the last few months, Ukraine’s drones found their way through and hit 
their targets. NewsSky speculates that Ukraine used at least two types of drones in the strike. 
The first appears to be a UJ-22 Airborne model, which is capable of carrying up to 44 pounds of 
explosives and can travel over 500 miles according to the manufacturer. Enough range to hit the 
Arzamas plant. The second drone is believed to be a “moped-style” first-person view, or FPV, drone 
that followed up on the initial drone strike. So, it seems like the UJ-22s had the job of 
destroying the walls of the Arzamas facility, with the FPV drones that followed being 
directed to the specific targets inside the facility that Ukraine wanted to hit. 
Those drones were successful, NewsSky says, because Ukraine carried out the strike from 
multiple directions. That made tracking all of the incoming drones difficult for Russia’s 
already stretched air defenses, in addition to giving Ukraine a failsafe. If one drone horde was 
shot down, which appears to be the case, then the other could still hit the factory. That’s exactly 
what happened. And the results are devastating for Russia’s war effort. Ukraine has confirmed 
that the strike took place and that its drones hit their targets. Speaking to the Ukrainian 
outlet Hromadske (hroh-MAHD-skeh), an SBU source has confirmed that it was in fact four, not two, 
drones that hit their targets in Arzamas during the early hours of August 11. “The enterprises 
of the Russian military-industrial complex, which are working for the war against Ukraine, 
are absolutely legitimate military targets,” the source told Hromadske. “The SBU continues to 
work on the demilitarization of facilities that produce weapons for terror in peaceful Ukrainian 
cities.” And we don’t need to take that source’s word for it, as video has already surfaced of 
Ukraine’s drones doing their damage. Published by the Euromaidan Press X account, several videos 
showcase both the strike in progress and its aftermath. One of the videos shows smoke pouring 
out of a window of the Arzamas facility. At least, for a few seconds. Suddenly, a massive explosion 
rocks the building, setting off car alarms in the process while engulfing the side of the factory 
in a massive fireball. Perhaps this was one of the follow-up FPV drones hitting its target after 
a gap had been created. We don’t know for sure. Other videos shared by Euromaidan Press show one 
of Ukraine’s drones descending on the factory, and the aftermath of the strike, as fires blaze 
inside and on top of the component manufacturing facility. The evidence is in, and it’s undeniable 
– Ukraine scored several direct hits on one of Russia’s most vital factories. Of course, evidence 
being “undeniable” doesn’t mean that Russia is going to admit that one of its factories has 
gone up in flames. The only comment provided by Russia so far is provided by the Arzamas regional 
governor, Gleb Nikitin (glehb nee-KEE-tin), who has confirmed that a strike took place. Nikitin 
stopped very short of stating that Ukraine had scored direct hits, however. “Last night, an 
attack by the enemy was carried out on two industrial zones in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. 
Their targets were our industrial enterprises.” Nikitin said. “Specialists are currently 
working on site; the mayor of Arzamas, Alexander Shchelokov (shcheh-LO-kov), is 
coordinating the situation, and necessary work is being organized together with the plant 
management.” That’s a little more than we usually get from Russia. It has at least acknowledged that 
Ukraine tried to hit an industrial facility. But rather than confirming the success of Ukraine’s 
drone assault, Nikitin instead claimed that one worker was killed and two more were injured in 
the attack. That’s an admission in its own right, even if Nikitin didn’t intend it to be. After 
all, how could these workers have been killed if Ukraine’s drones hadn’t penetrated the factory in 
which they were working? They couldn’t. This leads us to the obvious question of why, out of all of 
the factories that enable Russia’s brutal war, was the Arzamas plant chosen in the first place? 
One of the reasons is that the plant is among the most innovative and impressive in all of Russia. 
Euromaidan Press says that Astra has revealed that the plant is among “the leading enterprises of 
[Russia’s] defense-industrial complex. And it has been for a while. About 20% of the facility 
is owned by the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, which is a Russian company that is under 
sanctions from the U.S. and Europe. So, there’s a clear and direct link to Putin’s 
war effort. As for innovation, the plant received Russia’s “Golden Idea” award in 2020 
in recognition of the equipment it was building and its willingness to cooperate with Russia’s 
military. A pat on the head from Putin tells us that Russia’s leader places a great deal of value 
on this factory. Why wouldn’t he? The Arzamas plant makes a whole bunch of components that 
are vital to Russia’s war effort, ranging from gyroscopic instruments and onboard computers to 
control systems and steering mechanisms. You might recognize some of those components as being vital 
parts of the missiles that Russia is launching at Ukraine regularly. And wouldn’t you just know 
it… The SBU says that its drones specifically targeted the parts of the Arzamas facility that 
are responsible for making and storing components used in Russia’s X-32 and X-101 cruise missiles. 
That’s according to the SBU source who spoke to Hromadske at least, but that’s far from all that 
the plant makes. NewsSky says that components from the plant are also used in Russia’s air defense 
systems and the communications equipment built into its drones and aircraft. All told, up to 30% 
of what the Arzamas plant builds serves the needs of Russia’s military, making the factory key 
to Russia’s attempts to modernize its fighting force to deal with the far more technologically 
savvy Ukrainians. What we have here is a case of Ukraine being very careful about how it chooses 
its targets. Any strike on the Arzamas plant would have represented an impressive victory for 
Ukraine. There is almost an embarrassment of riches to choose from when it comes to what the 
plant makes and the impact the facility has on the Ukraine war. But Ukraine also knew that only 
a few of its drones were going to make it through Russia’s defenses. So, it chose carefully. And we 
now know that Ukraine specifically hit the part of the plant that makes components for some of 
Russia’s most dangerous missiles. The X-32, also known as the Kh-32, is a dangerous enough missile 
in its own right. An upgrade over Russia’s older Kh-22 missiles, according to Army Recognition, the 
missile has a range of up to 621 miles. That means Russia has been able to launch it from well behind 
the front lines without risking its aircraft in Ukrainian territory. Russia was planning to start 
equipping this missile with cluster munitions back in January 2024, Army Recognition says, and it’s 
likely that work has been completed by now. We also know the X-32 is a supersonic missile, 
meaning it’s fast enough to exceed the speed of sound. As for the X-101, also known as the 
Kh-101, that’s one of the most dangerous missiles in Russia’s arsenal. The X-101 variant holds a 
conventional warhead weighing up to 992 pounds, Missile Threat reports, though there’s also 
a version of the same missile – named the Kh-102 – that can carry a nuclear warhead. Throw 
a 1,739-mile range into the mix, and that missile would be almost impossible for Ukraine to 
hit directly, even with its best long-range drones. So, Ukraine didn’t target the missiles 
directly. It hit the factory that is responsible for ensuring those missiles have the components 
they need to reach their targets. That’s the genius of Ukraine’s strategy. Russia’s goal is 
to make as many of these missiles as possible before spreading them out far and wide across its 
own territory. That creates obvious problems for Ukraine. Rather than hitting a centralized 
storage unit, it would have to locate and strike potentially dozens of facilities and air 
bases across Russia to take out its stockpiles of these dangerous missiles. An almost impossible 
task. It’s much smarter to take out the one major facility that builds the navigational components 
these missiles need. Russia will still be able to build its X-32s and X-101s. But without the 
vital components being made at the Arzamas plant, those missiles are functionally useless. They 
become explosive duds that Russia can’t use to attack Ukraine. And that brings us to what 
the Arzamas plant strike means in the wider context of the Ukraine war. You see, this is 
far from the first example of Ukraine taking an indirect approach to tackling the problem of Putin 
trying to expand his war machine. Ukraine long ago realized that it would be onto a losing idea if 
it solely attacked Russia’s ammunition stockpiles. Russia could always make more. Instead, Ukraine 
is now engaged in a campaign of systematic degradation of what can best be described as the 
behind-the-scenes workings of Russia’s military. The goal is still to weaken Russia’s forces on 
the front lines. That will never change. But now, Ukraine is doing that weakening by depriving 
Russia of the ability to build and fund the weapons the country’s military needs to do 
significant damage to Ukraine. As Euromaidan Press puts it, “Ukraine conducts drone attacks against 
Russia to systematically degrade Russian military capabilities and disrupt the war effort through 
targeted strikes on strategic infrastructure.” Air bases. Oil refineries. Factories. They’re all 
targets in this systematic degradation because they all help to fuel Russia’s operations in the 
air and on the frontlines. The Arzamas strike is just the latest example of that degradation theory 
being put into devastating practice by Ukraine. We’ve also seen plenty of evidence that Ukraine’s 
approach is working. Back on March 29, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL, published an 
article that revealed that analysis of over 100 satellite images gathered from September 2024 to 
February 2025 showed that Ukraine had hit dozens of Russian military facilities during that period. 
All told, the damage caused was estimated at $714 million. But it’s not the economic aspect 
that is Ukraine’s main concern. Ukraine wants to hurt Russia’s military. Up to 160,000 tons 
of Russian ammunition were destroyed during the six-month period that RFE/RL tracked. Oil and 
gas facilities were hit 27 times, causing 97 storage tanks to be destroyed or damaged. And with 
Ukraine’s factory attacks, we see a clear effort to destroy Russia’s ability to build the weapons 
that are doing the most damage to Ukraine. Bear in mind that RFE/RL’s figures come from a single 
six-month period. About the same amount of time has passed since those figures were published, so 
it’s safe to assume that many more tons of ammo, components, and oil have gone up in flames since. 
The Carnegie Endowment introduced an interesting concept that could provide Ukraine with a path to 
victory in a June 2025 article. Dubbed “Strategic Neutralization,” the idea is that Ukraine avoids 
trying to bring Russia to the negotiating table or force its military into an attritional battle 
that slowly grinds away at Russia’s resources. Instead, Ukraine should make the war functionally 
unwinnable from a Russian perspective. “It aims to paralyze Russia’s ability to achieve any military 
success, not by defeating it in full but by making the pursuit of its goals unworkable and futile 
in practice,” The Carnegie Endowment says. “The strategy recognizes that functional defeat—where 
a military capability is not completely destroyed but rendered irrelevant—is both a repeatable and 
scalable outcome that Ukraine has already achieved in multiple cases.” Denying function rather than 
depleting volume lies at the core of this theory. The Arzamas strike fits right into the “Strategic 
Neutralization” idea. Just as Ukraine managed to neutralize Russia’s Black Sea threat by taking out 
a third of the Black Sea Fleet with missiles and drones, it’s now trying to do the same to Russia’s 
missiles. Simply absorbing those missiles while Russia runs out isn’t going to cut it. Making 
it harder and harder for Russia to build those missiles to the point where it’s disadvantageous 
for Russia to even try could be the end goal. And achieving that goal can’t come soon enough from 
the Ukrainian perspective. Hitting the Arzamas plant serves a more immediate strategic function 
than the long-term plan of neutralization. Ukraine needs to stop Russia from launching as many 
missiles as it has been launching, ideally as soon as possible. While it’s difficult to find figures 
on how many missiles Russia has fired against Ukraine in recent months, we do have a figure 
from earlier in the year courtesy of The Kyiv Independent. It quoted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister 
Andrii Sybiha (An-Dree Sy-Bi-Ha) on April 11, who said, “From March 11 to April 11, Russia shot 
at Ukraine almost 70 missiles of various types, over 2,200 Shahed drones, and more than 6,000 
guided aerial bombs.” 70 missiles in a month works out to between two and three missiles per day. 
It’s relatively safe to assume Russia has been keeping up these numbers ever since, and that’s a 
massive concern for Ukraine. Drones are one thing. Packed with explosives, a drone can punch a hole 
in a building or kill small groups of civilians. However, missiles are far more powerful, packing 
a punch so massive they can take out multiple buildings if they hit home. The X-32 and X-101s 
that the Arzamas factory played a key role in making functional are also among Russia’s most 
damaging. Taking out the plant means slowing down Russia’s production of those missiles. We may not 
see the effects for another couple of months. But when Russia runs low on its existing stockpiles, 
Ukraine will get a breather from these particular missiles because its August 11 drone strike took 
out the components needed to make them. Creating that situation is especially important for Ukraine 
because it still doesn’t have enough of the modern air defense systems that it needs to fully protect 
its largest cities from Russia’s missiles. Calls for more of these systems are common, and are 
often led by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. As far back as April 2024, Politico 
reported that Zelenskyy was claiming that at least 25 more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems were 
needed to make Ukraine’s skies as safe as possible from Russian missiles. Fast-forward a little over 
a year, and Zelenskyy was still calling for more air defenses. “Patriots and their missiles 
are real defenders of life,” Zelensky said in the wake of a July missile attack on Kyiv that 
left 23 Ukrainians injured and at least 1 killed. “It is very important to maintain the support of 
partners in ballistic missile defense.” Clearly, air defense is an area of the war in which Ukraine 
is still struggling. And though Ukraine now has a promise from U.S. President Donald Trump to help 
it source more modern systems, we don’t know precisely what that means yet. All the more reason 
for strikes like the August 11 attack on the Arzamas factory. That drone assault isn’t going to 
destroy Russia’s missile stockpile. But, as we’ve already mentioned, it will limit Russia’s ability 
to build at least a couple of types of missiles that have devastated Ukraine in the past. It’s all 
about buying time. Time for more air defenses to arrive. And time for Ukraine’s cities and troops 
as the country continues its strategy of deep strikes designed to disable Russia’s war machine 
once and for all. The Arzamas facility is far from the only key Russian factory Ukraine has taken 
out in recent days. In Tatarstan (TAH-tahr-stahn), Ukraine just obliterated a Russian factory of 
terror responsible for pumping out thousands of Russia’s long-range Shahed drones. Find 
out more in our video, and remember to