On the night of April 25, drones attacked the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions for the first time. In Ekaterinburg, one UAV crashed into a residential apartment building, damaging several flats and forcing the evacuation of around 50 residents.

In an interview with aif.ru, Honored Military Pilot of Russia, Major General Vladimir Popov, outlined possible launch scenarios. He said one possibility is that the drones were launched from the territory of Kazakhstan, where components could have been delivered earlier, assembled, and then launched from border areas, using terrain features to reach targets.

He also suggested that launch sites could have been located within neighboring Russian regions, where sabotage groups might operate, potentially using the steppe areas of the Orenburg region. In this case, drones could fly along mountain ranges to reduce detection by air defense systems.

As a third, less likely scenario, Popov mentioned launches from Ukrainian border areas. He noted that while Ukrainian drones are claimed to have a range of up to 1,500 km, such distance would significantly limit their payload.

Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that 127 Ukrainian drones were neutralized over Russian territory during the night of April 24–25.