Ukraine’s underground war reached one of Russia’s most important chemical plants

Ukrainian partisan movement ATESH has disabled energy and railway infrastructure near the Novomoskovsk Azot chemical plant in Tula Oblast, the group said. Agents destroyed a power distribution cabinet supplying the plant and burned a railway relay box on a rail line connected to the facility, causing logistical disruptions and delivery delays. 

The Azot plant in Novomoskovsk is part of the EuroChem holding and is Russia's largest producer of ammonia and nitrogen fertilizers, manufacturing ammonia, nitric acid, methanol, and mineral fertilizers, as well as chemical raw materials used in the production of explosives and ammunition, per Obozrevatel.

The plant's products are supplied to the Sverdlov State Plant in Nizhny Novgorod, where they are used to produce military-grade explosives, including HMX and RDX, which are the key components in artillery shells, according to UNITED 24. 

Drone strikes hit Azot three times since May

The facility has been targeted repeatedly in recent months. Ukrainian Defense Forces struck the Azot plant on the night of 13–14 June, 2026, with NASA's FIRMS system recording a significant temperature anomaly directly over the plant's premises — the third strike on the site since 26 May, per Militarnyi.

The ATESH ground operation targeting the plant's power and rail infrastructure is separate from those aerial strikes.

ATESH expands sabotage campaign across Russian rear

ATESH, whose name means "fire" in the Crimean Tatar language, was founded in September 2022 and has emerged as one of the most prolific partisan groups operating behind Russian lines. The movement's operations have consistently focused on energy and rail chokepoints linking Russia's military-industrial rear to the front.

On 20 June, ATESH agents damaged an electrical substation in Taganrog, disrupting power to the Atlant-Aero defense plant involved in military drone production. Earlier, in March, the group disabled relay cabinets in occupied Luhansk, targeting the primary supply artery toward the Pokrovsk front, and sabotaged a power substation in Russia's Bryansk Oblast, paralyzing key military logistics facilities in the area.