One address on the list stands out. At Lerchenauer Strasse 28 in Munich, where Russia’s Defense Ministry says a drone enterprise operates, sits an ordinary apartment building, according to the independent outlet Meduza. It is one of dozens of sites across Europe that Moscow now describes as potential military targets.
On April 15, the ministry published two lists of companies and addresses it claims build strike drones and components for Ukraine. The first, titled “Branches of Ukrainian Companies in Europe,” names 11 enterprises in countries that include the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and the Czech Republic. The second, “Foreign Enterprises Producing Components,” identifies 10 companies in Germany, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Israel. The addresses run from London and Munich to Prague, Riga, Madrid and Venice, with Haifa among them.
For people who live and work near these sites, the message landed as a threat. Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council and a former president, spelled out what the lists were for. The publication, he wrote, is “a register of potential legitimate targets for the Russian armed forces.” He added: “Sleep well, European partners.”
European governments pushed back. The Czech Republic, whose facilities appeared on the lists, summoned the Russian ambassador and asked for an explanation. Other European Union nations called it intimidation and hybrid warfare, a bid to sow division and discourage further military support for Kyiv.
The ministry said it published the lists so European citizens would grasp “the true causes of threats to their security” and know where “Ukrainian” and “joint” enterprises were producing drones on their own soil. It framed joint drone production as “a step towards escalation” that risks pulling European countries into direct confrontation with Russia.
The move followed a day of diplomacy in Berlin. On April 14, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and before their talks the two leaders were shown seven drone models built at joint Ukrainian-German enterprises. The same day, Germany and Ukraine settled on a defense package worth four billion euros, under which Berlin agreed to finance a contract to arm Patriot air defense systems with several hundred missiles.
Analysts see the lists as part of a familiar pattern of Russian “red line” signaling, in which public threats are meant to deter rather than to strike at once. No sign has emerged of an imminent attack, but as the war drags into its fourth year, the lists quietly normalize the idea of European factories as targets.
Sources
- Russia Publishes List of European Drone Facilities, Labels Them 'Potential Legitimate Targets' – Greek City Times
- Russia’s Defense Ministry publishes list of European drone manufacturers, and a Kremlin official calls them potential military targets — Meduza
