“Wake up, no one will protect us”

The head (president) of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnykhanov, commented on the April 2 drone attack on objects in Elabuga and Nizhnekamsk. He urged the heads of enterprises not to count on the air defense system and defend themselves. The words of the head of the region are given in particular by Idel.Realii.

— Do not wait for anti-missile defense to work, it solves other problems. We must decide on our own, every enterprise, every municipality, every city, – said Minnykhanov. He did not explain what specific tasks the air defense system solves.

The head of Tatarstan assumed, addressing Christians and Muslims at the same time, that the Almighty “gave a sign” the day before: “wake up, guys, no one will protect us, except ourselves.” He urged the emergency services to always be ready for emergency situations. At the same time, he did not say how the heads of enterprises and municipalities should protect themselves from attacks.

Minnykhanov also stated that the attack on “Alabuga Polytech” in Elabuga and the TANECO oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk “showed the most affected and sensitive areas in Tatarstan” and “the enemy feels it.”

We are talking about the first drone strike on the territory of Tatarstan during the war in Ukraine. It is more than a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian-Russian border.

In particular, the hostel complex, which was built for employees of the special economic zone and students of the local college “Alabuga Polytechnic” in 2022, was damaged. As the journalists found out, the damaged hostel is located 300-400 meters from the workshop for the assembly of unmanned aerial vehicles of the “Shakhed” type, adopted in Russia under the name “Geran-2”. They are collected by students of the Alabuga Polytechnic college, including minors, according to the investigation by journalists of the publication “Protokol” and the YouTube channel “RZVRT”.

As a result, 14 people were injured, 8 people remain in the hospital. Among them are citizens of nine countries – Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan.

Ukrainian publications, citing sources, reported that the drone attack on enterprises in Tatarstan was carried out by Ukrainian military intelligence and the SBU. In recent weeks, drones have struck more than 10 oil refineries in Russia. As a result, the equipment on some of them was out of order.