Overnight drone strikes targeted a major Russian microchip plant near the Ukraine border for the second time in just over a week, according to media reports late Thursday.
Bryansk region Governor Alexander Bogomaz said a brief fire erupted at an “administrative building” of an “industrial site” in the city of Bryansk, some 100 kilometers north of the Russia-Ukraine border.
There were no casualties, Bogomaz wrote on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defense systems “intercepted” two drones over Bryansk, one of which was destroyed in mid-air.
ChP Bryansk, an anonymously-run local news channel on Telegram, published a photograph of what it said was smoke coming out of the Kremnyi El microchip plant as a result of the drone strike. Barakholka, another Bryansk-based Telegram news channel, showed a video of firefighters putting out the flames on the building’s third floor.
Kremnyi El describes itself as one of Russia’s largest microelectronics enterprises with 1,700 employees and 3.9 billion rubles ($40 million) in annual production volume.
Russia’s Defense Ministry receives 94% of Kremnyi El’s production, according to local media, which includes components for the Pantsir and S-500 missile systems, as well as the Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Telegram news channels Ostorozhno, Novosti and Mash also identified Kremnyi El as the target of the latest drone strike.
Kremnyi El previously caught fire during one of the largest waves of drone attacks to hit Bryansk and several other Russian regions on the night of Aug. 30.
It was not immediately possible to verify the several reports of drones striking Kremnyi El.
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