Ukrainian drone strikes on the Volga region may be prepared according to several schemes at once, military expert and Major General of Aviation Vladimir Popov said in a comment to AiF. According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are using not one route, but a combined approach designed to bypass layered air defense and create additional pressure on it.

Popov named the movement of medium- and long-range drones through the Caspian region and then along the Volga as one of the likely directions. He allowed that such aircraft may approach not only from Ukrainian territory, but also through other countries. Another possible route, in his assessment, runs from southern Ukraine through the North Caucasus. In both cases, the expert noted, drones try to fly at minimum altitude in order to make detection more difficult.

Popov believes the point of such raids is not limited to hitting a specific target. In his assessment, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to stretch and overload Russia’s air defense system: first using short- and medium-range drones on the line of contact and in the near rear, and then using long-range aircraft against the background of this pressure.

Separately, the expert pointed to the possibility of launches already from Russian territory. He did not rule out that medium-range drones may be used by sabotage groups inside the country. Such a scheme, according to him, makes attacks more dispersed by launch source and complicates work to identify them.

The discussion of possible routes followed a massive UAV attack on the Zakamsky region of Tatarstan, which was earlier reported by the head of the republic, Rustam Minnikhanov. In Nizhnekamsk, one of the drones crashed into a residential building, after which four people were hospitalized.

Tatarstan Health Minister Almir Abashev said on the Max social network that three of the injured were in a state of acute stress reaction, while another suffered a shrapnel wound to the jaw.

After the attack, Nizhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyayev canceled all mass events in the city for security reasons. He also urged residents to rely only on official information and not on unverified reports.