RIGHT SPEAK: UKR Drone Attack Shuts RU Novatek Plant; ISW: RU Air Defense May Not Be Prepared for UKR Attacks; UKR GS Reports 59 Combat Clashes on Front Lines in Past Day; RU Loses 10 Tanks, 7 Art Syst, 760 Soldiers in 1 Day, LIVE UPDATES and MORE

Ukrainian drone attack shuts Russian Novatek plant:

Russia’s Novatek plant, located in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, has halted its operations following a Ukrainian drone attack.

That’s according to Bloomberg, Ukrinform reports.

As noted, the attack was a special operation of Ukrainian security forces. An official source in Kyiv it didn’t identify, said special forces struck the plant with drones.

According to Novatek, the Ust-Luga gas condensate-processing plant has ceased all technological operations. There were no casualties. The blaze was the result of “external influence,” Novatek said.

Fontanka, a local media outlet, said drones struck the facility, in the Leningrad region, early local time on Sunday morning, although Russia’s defense ministry reported no attacks in the area.

The Ust-Luga port is one of the country’s two main Baltic Sea energy-export outlets, located about 130 kilometers southwest of St. Petersburg, hometown of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and not far from the Estonian border.

As reported by Ukrinform, Russia reported a drone attack on the Tula, Smolensk and Orel regions. Russian social networks reported explosions in Tula. Later, Russian TV channels reported attacks and shootdown of allegedly Ukrainian drones in three regions of the Russian Federation. --->READ MORE HERE

Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

ISW: Russian air defense may not be prepared for Ukrainian attacks:

Russian air defense systems in Leningrad Oblasts are not likely designed to protect the region against attacks from the south, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its Jan. 21 report.

The terminal of Russia's Novatek natural gas company caught fire in the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Oblast near St Petersburg overnight on Jan. 21. The strike was the result of a planned operation by the Security Service of Ukraine, according to an unnamed source in the agency cited by Ukrainska Pravda.

The ISW said that air defense systems in Leningrad Oblast may not be well-equipped to counter attacks from Ukraine, because they were not designed with southern attacks in mind.

"Russia has historically arrayed its air defense in the area to defend against hypothetical NATO attacks," analysts wrote.

Russian forces are now building up a "Leningrad military district" along the border with Finland in order to intimidate NATO members and possibly prepare for a future war with NATO. Continued Ukrainian strikes on Russian military assets in the region may force Russia to change its tactics.

"Ukrainian strikes in Leningrad Oblast may prompt Russian forces to reposition short-range air defense systems along expected flight routes of Ukrainian drones to defend potential targets of strategic value," the ISW said.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force, said on Jan. 20 that Russian air defense systems were sufficient to protect targets near the front lines and in occupied Crimea, but not those on Russian soil. --->READ MORE HERE