Ukrainian drones target Splav rocket plant in Russia’s Tula for the third time this month

Overnight on 26 May, a drone strike reportedly hit the NPO Splav facility in Tula, Russia, 340 km from Ukraine, marking the second such attack on the plant this month. The factory produces rockets and Tornado-S multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS), heavy "flamethrower" systems (TOS), and guided and unguided aviation rockets.

Ukrainian Telegram channels Supernova+ and Exilenova+ shared footage, published by local residents, showing the moment of the explosion, which took place last night. A woman in the video says "It flies again," referring to a drone, and then after the distant explosion add, "It's at the plant."

Referring to the Ukrainian open-source intelligence (OSINT) community Kyberboroshno, Militarnyi noted that the same workshop was previously struck on 7 April 2025.

Currently, the extent of the damage remains unknown.the extent of the damage remains unknown.

Attempted geolocation

Using video and image analysis, Kyberboroshno geolocated the impact site to coordinates, stating that the explosion occurred on the premises of the same enterprise.

Meanwhile, Supernova+ published its geolocation analysis suggesting other target of the drone attack - the military storage base (military unit 21317) or the 1060th Central Material and Technical Supply Base (military unit 55443-16). This assessment contradicts the eyewitness’s comment in the video, which indicates that the explosion occurred at the plant.

Russian news Telegram channel Astra stated that NASA satellites did not detect fires in the Splav area. However, this report is irrelevant, because NASA FIRMS had already recorded thermal anomalies there in previous days, likely linked to industrial activity — making it impossible to single out fires caused by the drone strike amid numerous existing industrial hotspots.

Third attack on Splav this month

If confirmed, this may have been the third drone attack on NPO Splav in May 2025. The plant was previously hit on 7 May and again overnight on 22 May, when a functioning workshop caught fire. A substation also reportedly caught fire during that attack.