Ukrainian drones attacked Russia’s only fiber optic cable manufacturer at dawn on Friday (5), located in the city of Saransk, in the Republic of Mordovia. The information was initially reported by the local Telegram channel “Saransk. Incidents” and later confirmed by regional authorities.
+ Click here to watch the video
The attack occurred around 2:20 a.m. (local time), when residents reported hearing about ten explosions in the area. Some of those explosions were directly linked to the factory of the company Optical Fiber Systems, located at coordinates 54.2250739, 45.1957191. A second attack was filmed, but the drone did not explode.
The industrial plant had six production lines, with a daily capacity of 12,000 km of fiber optic cable — 2,000 km per line. The company’s annual production reached about 4 million kilometers of fiber optic cable. The cables are used in various applications, including FPV (First Person View) drones, widely employed by Russian forces on the front lines.
The company used Western equipment in its manufacturing process, including technology from the Austrian company Nextrom and Chinese systems from Vacree.
As this is the only Russian manufacturer of this type of cable, the interruption or destruction of its operations represents a potential blow to the country’s military drone infrastructure, especially for fiber-guided FPVs.
The head of the region, Artem Zdunov, confirmed the attack in a statement. According to him, “drones attacked one of the companies in the Republic of Mordovia,” and the competent services “are working to eliminate the consequences.” Zdunov did not specify which company was hit.
The industrial facility is located about 660 km from the Ukrainian border, demonstrating the range of Ukrainian drone operations on Russian territory.
Source and images: militarnyi / Telegram @saransk_chp / @karymat. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
