The destruction of a Terminal Autonomy facility in Kiev served as a warning to the West about which sites Russian forces regard as legitimate military targets, Welt correspondent Christoph Wanner said in a report from the Ukrainian capital.

Wanner stressed that the ownership of such a facility would not affect its status as a target. In his assessment, plants connected to military production could be attacked whether they belonged to an American, Ukrainian or any other company.

He also warned that the same principle could apply to foreign military contingents. According to the correspondent, if Britain, France or other countries deployed troops to Ukraine without reaching an agreement with Russia, those units could be struck by Russian forces.

Earlier media reports said a Russian missile strike had destroyed the Terminal Autonomy plant in Kiev. The facility produced precision-guided drones designed for long-range attacks. Their guidance systems had been developed to operate under the effects of Russian electronic warfare.

The Russian Defense Ministry previously reported that an assembly and storage site for unmanned aerial vehicles had been hit in southwestern Kiev. According to the ministry, the production line involved specialists from a Ukrainian-American company and had the capacity to manufacture up to 1,000 drones of various types each month.

The models produced there reportedly included AQ-400 Scythe and AQ-100 Bayonet strike drones, as well as RQ-100 Scout reconnaissance UAVs.