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“Our main national munitions production site has been wiped out,” an officer from the Ukrainian Army’s 104th Brigade revealed to Le Monde this week in an exposé on Russian drone and missile operations against strategic targets in Shostka, Sumy region. Here’s what to know about the factory and its detonating cap-making sister enterprise.
According to the officer, the Zvezda and Impulse military plants were targeted repeatedly in 2024, including a massive attack by 13 ballistic missiles on December 31.
Produced charges for 122, 125, 130 and 152 mm artillery rounds, 125 mm tank gun rounds, 23 and 30 mm autocannon munition, hunting smoke and nitrocellulose (pyroxylin) powder, electrical insulating materials, special varnishes aviation and electronics, solvents and adhesives.
Other activities included repair, disassembly and disposal of military equipment.
The plant’s territory sprawls across 1860+ acres. The company is subordinated to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry.
Zvezda is the oldest gunpowder and munitions plant in Ukraine, established in 1771.
Maker of detonator caps, electronic detonators, detonating cords, non-electric detonation devices, components for MLRS missiles, cartridges, electric igniters, and industrial explosive charge components for mining, construction and metallurgy.
The only factory of its kind in Ukraine, founded in 1848. According to the local museum of history, just five other countries (Russia, China, the US, France and the UK) possess the same technological capabilities.
The twin plants’ destruction is very bad news for Ukraine’s war effort, which already relies on NATO deliveries for over 80% of its military needs, and faces ever-present threats of a cutoff in US aid as Moscow and Washington push for a peace deal.
