MOSCOW, February 12. /TASS/. Russia’s destruction of a major drone-producing enterprise supplying Lasar's Group (a special unit within Ukraine’s National Guard) deals a serious blow to the Kiev regime in general, military expert Alexander Stepanov said.
"The obliteration of Lasar's Group’s production facilities is a truly significant event, provided that the destroyed plant is among the cutting-edge production facilities stuffed with Western-made equipment," said Stepanov, who is a military expert at the Institute of Law and National Security at the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA).
"Lasar's Group is among the highest-publicized units within the National Guard of Ukraine, a sort of media darling for the Kiev regime’s drone forces. Operations to destroy the adversary’s defense production potential will target such sites," the expert continued.
Stepanov went on to say that the higher-ups within Lasar's Group, which has a broad network of industrial sites, has until now been "greatly favored by Kiev’s leadership, not least due to corruption-related interests" as it received priority financing from the country’s defense budget and huge donations from NATO and its members.
Its production sites were used as a testing ground for various technological solutions in the drone industry, including research and development for its own devices and the in-country manufacturing of Western models. Besides, Lasar's Group played an active role in imports of NATO-made unmanned aerial vehicles, including over 2,000 drones supplied by the US.
The Atlantic magazine reported on February 11 that a major Ukrainian UAV production plant had been destroyed in a massive drone attack, with damage estimated at $35 million. The facility was destroyed "a few months ago," by "a barrage of Russian drones," the magazine wrote with reference to Ukrainian air force Deputy Commander Pavel Yelizarov. The deputy commander did not specify when exactly the plant was destroyed. Over the past few weeks, the Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported strikes by UAVs and high-precision long-range weapons on Ukrainian defense industry facilities.