Four different distilleries in Russia were attacked by Ukrainian drones early Tuesday. It was the largest attack on Russian alcohol production facilities to date. The plants also provide fuel for the ongoing war – a combined heat and power plant and a synthetic rubber plant were also the subject of the strike.

According to posts on the social messaging app Telegram, an unknown number of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) hit targeted facilities in the Tula region, while another was aimed at a facility in the Tambov region. Another distillery in the Novokhopersky district of the Voronezh region was also the target of the drone attack.

Although the Kremlin quickly reported that all Ukrainian drones were shot down, users on Telegram shared photos and videos suggesting the opposite. The photos and clips were shared on X and show that at least one of the distilleries in the Tula region suffered significant damage when the building caught fire.

The Kremlin once again failed to control the narrative

This is not the first time that news has spread quickly on social media, although Moscow has unsuccessfully tried to keep the story under wraps.

“Although this has not been confirmed by the Ukrainian government, the images appear to be legitimate and there is no indication that they are fake, although that could change,” suggested Dr. Kurt Braddock, assistant professor of public communication at American University, said.

“Given that the images are being distributed on Telegram, it appears that keeping the news of the attack on the facilities secret is beyond Moscow’s control,” Braddock added. “There were some claims that Russian air defenses stopped a drone attack en route to Moscow, but that too has not been confirmed.”

Previous social media reports from Russia came largely from so-called “milbloggers,” who were surprisingly critical of the Russian war effort while still supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin. In this case, it was “average” Russians who first spread the news on social media that the facilities were under attack.

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to keep this information secret from the Russian public,” said Dr. Matthew Schmidt, associate professor in the National Security Division at the University of New Haven. “Russians are increasingly receiving information that lies outside the curated garden of Kremlin-controlled television networks.”

Distant distilleries

None of the facilities attacked were anywhere near Ukraine, nor were the distilleries what were considered military targets just a few months ago. Therefore, these attacks were probably completely unexpected and took Russian citizens by surprise.

The attacks highlighted Kiev’s ability to push even further into Russia while Moscow is unable to control the narrative about Ukraine’s military reach.

“This is a blow to Russia and in particular to Putin’s ability to deter Ukraine’s attacks on Russian territory,” Braddock added. “We can expect there to be more of these in the future, not only to demonstrate Ukraine’s reach, but also to show that Russia’s ability to deter these types of attacks is more limited, than Moscow wants to admit.”

While it may not be a defining moment for the Russian people, support for the war is unlikely to increase.

“In fact, there has been a new public opinion poll that suggests that while there is still support for the war, the public is looking for a solution,” Schmidt said, suggesting that average citizens are quick to share these images with friends and family will be across the country.

“That’s part of what’s driving these contributions right now,” he added.

The importance of distilleries to the war effort

The other side of this story, as many on social media were quick to joke, is that Russians might rebel if the country’s vodka producers were taken offline. Although intended as satire, it actually misunderstands the importance of these facilities to the war effort.

“The first thought is that these are not vodka plants,” Schmidt said. “These are facilities that produce alcohol for use in industrial applications such as stripping copper wires for hypersonic missiles and all sorts of other industrial projects. These attacks attempted to get to the bottom of many different aspects of the war economy by taking out a purifier and an astringent necessary for the production of all types of hardware across the board.

At this point, the average Russian – or even Ukrainian – may not be aware of the significance of Tuesday’s drone strikes.

“Russia will have more facilities online in 2026 and 2027,” Schmidt added. “But until then, Russia faces a real bottleneck in terms of getting things out, and curbing alcohol production is a good way to slow that down.”