Russia builds concealed defense factories amid Ukraine war

Russia has opened new defence manufacturing sites that outwardly resemble abandoned shopping centres but internally house high‑capacity CNC machines producing weapons. The shift reflects the intensifying urban warfare with Ukraine, prompting a strategy to disperse production, digitise technical drawings and relocate key assembly lines into deep Cold‑War‑era shelters and abandoned mines.

Ukraine, under constant Russian missile and drone strikes, is also moving its own defence output underground in the Carpathian region. Joint ventures with Germany's Rheinmetall AG and the United Kingdom's BAE Systems plc are installing drone assembly lines, armored‑vehicle factories and ammunition plants inside former Soviet bunkers and old mines, aiming to shield critical capabilities from aerial attacks.