The Russian Ministry of Defence has released footage of the launch of precision missiles at the Motor Sich workshop in Zaporozhye, Ukraine.
“Production workshops of the Motor Sich plant in the city of Zaporozhe producing aircraft engines for combat aviation of the Ukrainian air forces, including unmanned aerial vehicles, were destroyed by high-precision long-range air- and sea-based missiles,” MoD spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a briefing Wednesday morning.
Motor Sich, manufacturer of world-class turbofan, turboprop and rotary-wing turboshaft engines for aircraft and helicopters ranging from the Antonov An-124 strategic airlifter to Mi-series helicopters, was one of the largest manufacturers of aircraft engines in the USSR, and remains one of the biggest engine-makers in the region.
China’s Skyrizon Aviation bought a 41 percent stake in the company in 2017. Washington applied intense pressure on Kiev over the move, threatening to withhold weapons sales in 2020, and blacklisting Skyrizon in January 2021 over its “significant ties to the PRC and the People’s Liberation Army.”
A Ukrainian court took control of Motor Sich’s assets and shares in March 2021, transferring the company to a state holding body ordinarily responsible for managing assets seized for corruption. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an executive decree imposing sanctions on Skyrizon for their supposed efforts to gain control of the Ukrainian aerospace giant. Skyrizon responded in late 2021 by taking Ukraine to The Hague, demanding $4.5 billion in compensation.
In April 2021, Ukrainian media reported that Kiev might sell a 50 percent stake of Motor Sich to a Turkish defence industry firm. In June of that year, Turkish Aerospace Industries and Motor Sich penned an agreement for the supply of heavy-class helicopter engines for Turkey’s new T929 Atak 2 helicopter gunship.