Russian authorities have reported drone attacks on four regions that occurred on the night of 2-3 July, with explosions heard in the cities of Lipetsk and Yelets in Lipetsk Oblast – the former is home to a military airfield, while the latter has a battery plant.

Source : Astra, a Russian Telegram channel; Russian Ministry of Defence; Lipetsk Oblast Governor Igor Artamonov and Voronezh Oblast Governor Alexander Gusev on Telegram

Quote from Artamonov : "After the drone crashed in the car park of one of the facilities in Yelets, a fire broke out. The fire has now been localised. Employees of the nearest workshops have been evacuated. Early reports indicate that there are no casualties or fatalities."

Details : Artamonov did not specify which facility was involved, but he said that "reports of [drone] debris falling are coming in from various districts".

Artamonov added that debris supposedly fell on a house in the Lipetsk district, killing one person and injuring two others, and another drone hit a section of an apartment building under construction in Yelets.

Aftermath of a drone strike.  

Photo: Artamonov on Telegram 

Astra stressed that residents of Lipetsk and the surrounding region have reported a large number of explosions.

Російський Липецьк, де розташований військовий аеродром, атакували дрони. Там лунали вибухи. Відео з Telegram-каналу Astra.
Обережно: на відео присутня нецензурна лексика pic.twitter.com/XUGGAKsPrZ

— Українська правда ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) July 3, 2025

Those people claimed that drones had again attacked the Energia plant in Yelets, which manufactures batteries for UAVs, aircraft and the navy.

Момент атаки на Єлець Липецької області РФ, де, за попередніми даними, атакували завод акумуляторів "Енергія". Telegram-каналу Astra. pic.twitter.com/6hmOGfYC4F

— Українська правда ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) July 3, 2025

There is no confirmation of this information yet.

This plant was already attacked on the night of 22-23 May.

Lipetsk is home to a Russian military airfield where Su-34, Su-35 and MiG-31 aircraft are based. It was also attacked in August 2024.

Alexander Gusev, the governor of Voronezh Oblast, also reported the UAV attack. He said that in Voronezh, the roof of a house was damaged because parts of a downed drone fell on it, and one village was cut off from the power grid due to a damaged power transmission line.

In the morning, the Russian Ministry of Defence reported that air defence systems had supposedly destroyed "69 Ukrainian drones". In particular, they said that 27 UAVs were supposedly shot down over Belgorod Oblast, 22 over Voronezh Oblast, 10 over Lipetsk Oblast, 8 over Kursk Oblast and 2 over temporarily occupied Crimea.

Meanwhile, Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of Belgorod Oblast, and Alexander Khinshtein, the acting governor of Kursk Oblast, did not write anything about the attacks.

The Telegram channel Astra also reported that Rosaviatsiya (Federal Air Transport Agency) imposed temporary restrictions on flights at the airports of Saratov in Saratov Oblast and Tambov in Tambov Oblast.  

Yevgeny Pervyshov, the acting governor of Tambov Oblast, did not write anything about the attack, but he reported a fire at one of the facilities in the city of Kotovsk, which killed three employees.

Quote from Pervyshov: "As reported by the head of Kotovsk, a fire broke out at one of the city's facilities on the night of 2-3 July. Early reports show that the cause was a violation of technological processes. The fire was quickly localised... Three employees were killed. Three more people were injured, two of whom were taken to hospital."

More details: Pervyshov did not specify where exactly the fire broke out, but there are several factories in the city of Kotovsk, including a gunpowder factory, plastics factories, a technological equipment factory and others.

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