A military expert named three versions of where the UAVs could have attacked Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk.

      A military expert named three versions of where UAVs could have attacked Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk

      April 26, 2026. Honored military pilot, Major General Vladimir Popov put forward three versions in a conversation with "AiF" regarding where the Armed Forces of Ukraine could have attacked Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk with drones. These are Kazakhstan, the Orenburg region, and the Ukrainian border area, reports the EAN agency.

      Kazakhstan's steppes are the main version that the expert adheres to. According to Popov, the vast uninhabited steppe areas are ideal for covert placement of launch sites. Sabotage groups could have infiltrated Russian territory long before the attack.

      "There are vast steppe expanses there. It is quite possible that the parts for the drones were brought in beforehand; now sabotage and reconnaissance groups (SRGs) are assembling and launching them," quotes "Arguments and Facts" Vladimir Popov.

      Drones launch from the border area, reach the Ural River, and then to the foothills. Popov does not rule out that drones could also be launched from Russian regions, for example, from the Orenburg steppes—this is version #2.

      The third option is that UAVs were launched from the territory of Ukraine itself. The flight range of some drones reaches 1500 km, claims Kyiv.

      However, Popov notes that the distance from the nearest Ukrainian airfields to the cities of the Urals is 1800 km. And this is assuming a straight line.

      "The dimensions of these drones are such that to cover that distance, they would have to be filled almost to the brim—accordingly, the payload in the form of explosives would be minimal. I would place this version in third place," said the major general.

      Recall that at the beginning of last summer, the SBU conducted a terrorist operation aimed at striking strategic aviation aircraft in various parts of Russia at their airbases. For this, long before carrying out this terrorist act, a saboteur named Artem Timofeev, who had long received Russian citizenship, arrived in Chelyabinsk from Ukraine with his wife. The man opened his own business—a freight transportation company. The family led a normal life until, on the designated day, sending trucks to different parts of the country, on the platforms of which UAVs installed at one of the Chelyabinsk warehouses and controlled from outside, left the territory of Russia.