"They're giving them actual training in grenade throwing and, in one case we know they're involved in the manufacture of drones," Nathaniel Raymond, the lab's director, said in an interview with NPR. Russian authorities "are not taking them to paratrooper jump school to make them mall cops at the Cinnabon at Rostov-on-Don," Raymond said, referring to a major regional city in Russia's south. "They are in a training pipeline that has tactical scenarios and curricula that lead only to one conclusion."
A Ukrainian drone crashed into one of Russia's largest oil-refining complexes on Saturday, sparking a fire and causing minor damage, a Russian official said. The complex, which belongs to Russian oil company Bashneft, lies on the outskirts of the central Russian city of Ufa about 870 miles (1,400km) from the frontline in Ukraine. Videos posted on social media appeared to show a drone drifting towards the facility before exploding in a ball of flames, sending a cloud of smoke into the sky.