On the evening of January 14, a Ukrainian drone attacked a distillery in the village of Nova Liada in the Tambov region, according to Shot and Astra. They report hearing several explosions near the facility, and a fire broke out at the distillery. Astra notes that the target of the drone might also have been a military training ground in Nova Liada.
The regional government confirmed that air defense forces and electronic warfare systems shot down the drone over the village. The parts of the downed drone got caught in the branches of a tree.
"One of the houses has minor damage. No casualties," said the official statement.
Nova Liada is home to one of Russia's largest distilleries, "Amber Talvis." It was owned by Yuri Shefler, the owner of the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka brands, who left Russia in 2002 and moved to Switzerland. In July 2024, the Tambov District Court ruled in favor of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office and nationalized the distillery.
Prior to this, Ukraine had attacked five distilleries in Russia. In late October, drones first attempted to strike two enterprises in the Tula region and one in Tambov. One of the leading ethyl alcohol rectification plants, "Zernoproduct," was also targeted. A week later, drones attacked the Anninsky Distillery and the "Ethanol-Spirt" plant in the Voronezh region. None of the facilities sustained significant damage, and there were no casualties.
Distilleries can produce fuel for the missiles Russia uses to strike Ukraine.
"Ukrainian drones attacked four facilities on Russian territory: "Biokhim" — a molasses processing and ethyl alcohol production plant; the Luzhkovsky Distillery; the Efremovsky Distillery; and an industrial facility in the Voronezh region. These are all military targets, despite being disguised as something else," said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Counteracting Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC).
