Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional details from Ukraine’s security services and satellite images showing damage to the factory, as well as new information on the facility’s role in Russian missile production.
Ukrainian forces struck the Azov optical-mechanical factory in the Russian Rostov oblast on the night of September 26, the Ukrainian General Staff announced.
A fire broke out at the factory’s foundry, while equipment in five production buildings was damaged, according to the army.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) later said its Alpha special operations center carried out the strike jointly with the Ukrainian navy. The attack involved Neptune cruise missiles as well as Ruta, Palianytsia and Bars jet drone-missiles.
According to the SBU, the strike damaged optical and foundry production facilities, an assembly section, an electroplating workshop and a printed circuit board manufacturing facility.
The plant, located in the city of Azov, is part of the Russian Tactical Missile Corporation and produces opto-mechanical and optoelectronic equipment, electronics for artillery, missile and anti-tank weapons, as well as radar guidance systems for guided missiles. Ukrainian military intelligence also considers this facility to be part of the Russian defense industrial complex.
Internal documents obtained by private intelligence firm Dallas Analytics indicate that the factory is involved in the production lines of at least seven Russian missile programs, including the Kh-101 strategic cruise missile and the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile.
The documents, dated between 2023 and 2025, include internal correspondence, state contract records and production schedules. Dallas Analytics said they also connect the factory to components of the R-37M long-range air-to-air missile, the Kh-35U, Kh-59 and Kh-69 missiles and the Kh-31P anti-radiation missile.
According to the analysis, the factory manufactures two critical assemblies for the Kh-101, including a navigation lidar and a flight automation block. Internal correspondence also indicates that the Russian Aerospace Forces were seeking to increase production from 2026 of components used in the R-37M missile.
The General Staff said the factory produced equipment used by the Russian military and described the strike as an attempt to reduce Russia’s military-industrial capabilities.
The SBU separately described the facility as one of the major optoelectronic production sites owned by the Tactical Missiles Corporation, producing radar and infrared guidance systems for guided missiles, thermal imaging equipment and electronic systems used in precision artillery.
The strike on the Azov plant followed another Ukrainian attack on the Russian Ilsky oil refinery in Krasnodar Krai overnight. Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces said the refinery, located about 400 kilometers (250 miles) from the drone’s launch zone, was targeted by the 1st Separate Unmanned Systems Forces Center, the 414th Unmanned Systems Brigade, known as “Madyar’s Birds,” and other Ukrainian units.
The SBU also said it participated in the attack on the Ilsky refinery and reported two fires on the facility’s grounds, one near the tank farm and another near a primary oil processing unit.
Ukrainian defense company Fire Point said the refinery was hit by FP-1 drones and subsequently halted operations. According to the company, three primary oil processing units and a tank farm were damaged during the strike.
Gn world
