Defense Express Editor-in-Chief Oleh Katkov stated this on Espreso TV.He commented on a recent Russian propaganda video from a drone production plant."Russia has been scaling this up for several years—that’s what it takes to reach planned production figures. In fact, these are not the first images from the plant in Yelabuga. They’ve once again shown the scale of the operation: a special economic zone with several large facilities where all the Shaheds are built from scratch. The footage shows carbon fiber drone assembly," said Katkov.The expert emphasized that one of Russia’s largest carbon fiber producers is located in the Yelabuga industrial zone itself."They’ve objectively and cleverly built these logistics chains. According to estimates by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate, by early summer, Russia was producing 90 Shaheds per day. This figure includes not only Yelabuga but also production in Izhevsk at the ‘Kupol’ facility. Now it’s likely over 100 per day. They continue to scale up. What helps them? Oil revenue and the Russian budget, 40% of which goes to war," he added.In his opinion, Russia can overwhelm any obstacle with money."A truck arrives and unloads three KAMAZ loads of cash. That solves everything. Buy Chinese components, hire migrant workers, build a casting shop, assemble moped engines, collect electronics from Chinese parts," Katkov said.He stressed that if such facilities are not hit, the enemy operates in ideal conditions."They keep pouring money in, expanding production, because Shaheds have already become the main delivery system for warheads. Take any recent attack over the last six months—whether it involved cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, Kinzhal missiles, or Shaheds—the number of Shahed warheads has exceeded those on missiles two- or threefold. While missiles deliver about 10-15 thousand tons of explosives, Shaheds deliver 20-30 thousand," said Katkov.Katkov also discussed attacks on this plant."We’ve already struck Yelabuga several times with long-range drones. These are isolated strikes, but the big problem is the extremely powerful local air defense system. In the footage where Ukrainian drones do reach the site, you can see Pantsir systems in action. Tor systems are also deployed, and I’m sure there are S-400s. These are strategic targets—a triangle including the Yelabuga industrial zone, the Kama hydroelectric plant, and further east, Naberezhnye Chelny with KAMAZ," the expert added.He noted that this powerful air defense region was reinforced during the Soviet era."Army aviation is also deployed nearby to defend against drone attacks. Given that Ukraine is limited to long-range drone strikes, these drones are our only current tool—and we can only hope that some of them get through and hit their targets," Katkov concluded.