On October 23, 2024, a new Ukrainian strike on a Russian distillery inflicted significant damage on the structure. Which is not without consequences for the Kremlin, which values its alcohol factories for a surprising reason.
Among the most expensive commodities in Russia: alcohol. Not for the vodka and gin distilled for the country's inhabitants but rather because ethanol is a key component of Russian artillery. Its impressive and formidable air force needs it.
Also, the Ukrainian army is exploiting this loophole and has made distilleries its new favorite target. A roundabout way to inflict heavy damage on the enemy, reports Current time.
Three simultaneous attacks
On the night of October 23, Ukrainian drones struck the Biokhim JSC company in Rasskazov, in the Tambov region of Russia. A few hours earlier, the Efremov distillery was targeted in the Tula region. Attacks which are far from harmless. Later, a drone caused a fire at a factory in the Voronezh region.
Yet located several hundred kilometers from the Ukrainian border – well beyond the regions undergoing an incursion by kyiv such as Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod – these strikes were strategic and part of Zelensky's plan. This was the first massive Ukrainian raid against companies in the food industrynote Mashnews.
A real impact?
One of the factories attacked is one of the largest alcohol factories in the country. 10,000 decalitres are produced there every dayparticularly for the Alpha, Lux and Extra brands. The company made a profit of 385 million rubles (3.7 million euros) last year.
But these factories do not only supply the food sector. Indeed, notes the website of one of them, cited by our colleagues: “Companies cannot do without alcohol-containing products in military units, at space facilities and even in the interhospital pharmacy of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation.”
“It can be used to produce fuels, explosives and other materials of strategic importance. In war conditions, alcohol can be an important element for the supply of certain types of weapons or ammunition, this which logically makes distilleries attractive targets for strikes”explains a risk management expert.
But these attacks could also be a act of propagandanuance another Russian expert : “This is a public relations campaign, mainly aimed at the West. There are still people in the West who believe in the cliché of Russians with vodka. In the absence of further success, the command is sending drones towards alcohol production plants.”
