KYIV — Ukraine's Defence Forces struck the Morozov Plant near St Petersburg overnight on November 9, damaging three production workshops, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Monday. The plant makes solid-propellant charges for the motors of Russia's Iskander-M ballistic missiles. The General Staff said the extent of the damage was still being assessed, and Russia's Defence Ministry did not comment on the Morozov claim in the reporting reviewed on Monday; the Kyiv Independent said it could not independently verify the claim.

Source: Kyiv Independent, Nov 9 2026, via Zot News

3production workshops the General Staff said were damaged at the Morozov Plant
9M723the Iskander-M ballistic missile whose 9Kh820 motors use the plant's solid-propellant charges — General Staff
Topol-Mthe intercontinental missile system whose motor propellant the plant also developed — General Staff
0comments from Russia's Defence Ministry on the Morozov strike in the reporting reviewed on Monday

The Morozov Plant is part of Rostec, Russia's state defence conglomerate, which is under international sanctions, and Ukraine sanctioned the plant itself in August, the Kyiv Independent reported. According to the General Staff, the enterprise produces explosives, manufactures and supplies solid-propellant charges for the 9Kh820 motors that power the 9M723 Iskander-M missiles, and developed the solid propellant for the motors of the Topol-M systems. The General Staff called it one of the key links in the chain that provides the Russian army with ballistic missiles — weapons Russia has used in strikes on Ukrainian cities since it invaded in February 2022.

Source: UATV via 112.ua, Nov 9 2026

Kyiv framed the strike as striking the missile supply chain at its source. "Every Iskander fired at a Ukrainian city begins at a factory workshop, not at the launcher," the General Staff wrote in its update, as reported from its statement — that is where the propellant that lifts the missile is made, and a strike of this kind hampers Russia's output of the missiles used against Ukrainian cities. The update said Ukraine was acting within the right of self-defence under Article 51 of the UN Charter, and that its Defence Forces are systematically undermining Russia's military and economic potential with the stated aim of compelling Russia to end its armed aggression against Ukraine.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine statement, via Virginia Times Now, Nov 9 2026

The same night, a second deep strike — at Kirishi

The Morozov strike was the second Ukrainian attack deep inside Russia's northwest that night. In a separate overnight attack, Ukrainian drones hit Russia's second-largest oil refinery at Kirishi in Leningrad Oblast, regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko confirmed, in an attack in which the governor said 113 Ukrainian drones were shot down over the region. The two targets sit in the same broad region near St Petersburg but are different facilities with different roles: Kirishi refines oil, Morozov — on Ukraine's account — feeds the ballistic-missile chain.

Source: Kyiv Independent, Nov 9 2026, via Zot News

The Kirishi refinery strike, confirmed by the Leningrad governor, was reported by Awaaz Punjab earlier on Monday. Read: Ukrainian drones strike Russia's second-largest refinery at Kirishi

The Morozov claim also follows an October claim in the same campaign: Ukraine said in October that its drones and Neptune missiles had hit a Russian propellant plant in the Rostov region. The Kyiv Independent noted that Ukraine has stepped up long-range strikes on oil refineries and military-industrial plants across Russia since early summer 2026, aiming to degrade Russia's military potential.

Source: General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine statement, via Virginia Times Now, Nov 9 2026

Russia's own daily account on Monday did not address the Morozov plant. The Russian Defence Ministry claimed on Monday that Ukrainian forces had lost more than 535 soldiers over the past 24 hours and that Russian air defences had intercepted two US-made HIMARS rockets and 680 Ukrainian drones, Azernews reported. Those are the ministry's own claims, reported as such, and they do not confirm or deny the strike on the plant near St Petersburg.

Source: Azernews, Nov 9 2026

What is solid

  • Ukraine's General Staff said on Monday that Ukrainian forces struck the Morozov Plant near St Petersburg overnight, damaging three production workshops, with the damage extent still being assessed — reported by the Kyiv Independent, The Independent's live coverage, UATV via 112.ua and Azernews from the same General Staff statement
  • The plant is part of the Rostec state corporation, produces explosives and solid-propellant charges for Iskander-M motors, and developed Topol-M motor propellant — General Staff, via multiple outlets
  • A separate Ukrainian drone attack the same night hit the Kirishi refinery in Leningrad Oblast, which the regional governor confirmed — Kyiv Independent; governor's statements reported by Reuters

What is only claimed

  • That three Morozov workshops were in fact damaged, and by how much production is affected: the claim rests on Ukraine's General Staff alone so far, the Kyiv Independent could not independently verify it, and Russia's Defence Ministry had not commented on the plant in the reporting reviewed

What happens next

The facts to watch are the General Staff's promised damage assessment, any Russian confirmation or denial, and any satellite or industry reporting on whether propellant output at Morozov has actually been interrupted — a single night's damage to three workshops does not by itself establish a lasting cut in Iskander production, and no such cut has been verified. The claim lands a day before Ukraine, Russia and the United States open US-mediated talks in Abu Dhabi on November 10-11, in a week when both sides have traded long-range strikes on energy and military-industrial targets rather than pausing for the diplomacy.