Russia has built 10 bases with launch ramps for jet-powered drones along its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, capable of reaching Poland, Turkey, and the Baltic states, a Telegraph investigation reveals.
Russia has established 10 bases with new launch ramps for jet-powered drones along its borders with Ukraine and Belarus, bringing NATO countries within their potential range, The Telegraph reported in an investigation on August 16. The news comes as Russia has sharply increased its use of jet-powered weapons against Ukraine, which are harder to intercept than propeller-driven Shahed drones, and Ukraine's air force confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that their use in July increased fivefold compared to June.
Using satellite imagery and leaked documents, the publication identified at least 59 newly built launch rails spread across 10 locations. Some were repurposed from old military bases and civilian airports, while others were built in rural areas. According to an analysis of satellite imagery by DroneSec, a company specializing in drone tracking, some of the new bases are positioned so that drones launched from them could potentially reach NATO territory, including Poland, Turkey, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and Romania.
One base has storage capacity for more than 1,000 long-range drones at a time, and construction of additional launch rails is underway at several key locations. The bases are being built to launch Russia's new generation of long-range strike drones, including variants designated as Geran-4 and Geran-5, which can fly nearly 1,000 kilometers and carry a payload of 90 kilograms.
Open-source tracking data showed that seven of the ten identified bases were used in recent Russian attacks on Kyiv, whose air defense is increasingly strained by a critical shortage of Patriot interceptor missiles. This shortage has already had deadly consequences for the Ukrainian capital. In an attack on July 2, at least 31 people were killed and more than 100 injured. Four days later, on July 6, a new mass attack killed at least 26 people and injured dozens, including seven children.
Russia has already repeatedly tested the risks of the war spilling beyond Ukraine's borders. A Russian Shahed drone struck a residential building in Romania in May, injuring two people, while another Russian drone crossed into Moldova during a July attack on Ukraine. Russia has also jammed and redirected Ukrainian drones toward NATO countries, creating an additional security challenge for European states.
NATO officials have not ruled out the possibility of a conventional Russian attack in the coming years. German army chief Christian Freuding stated that it is "NATO-agreed intelligence" that Moscow will be ready to attack a member state as early as 2029. In an interview with the Kyiv Independent, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, Chairman of NATO's Military Committee, said NATO is ready to respond to any hostile moves by Russia.
"(Russia) would lose much, much more than it could gain by merely touching Poland or the Baltic states," he said.
