The Defense Forces of Ukraine launched a successful long-range strike on another Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) of the russian Ministry of Defense. On the night of February 12, a facility near the town of Kotluban in the Volgograd region came under attack. Unlike other arsenals of this class, its number is unknown. It is known as military unit 57229-51.
Videos from locals, along with authorities ordering the evacuation of the nearby town of Kotluban, about one km from the depot, indicate the site was damaged.
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At the same time, the extent of damage to this arsenal is currently unknown. However, it is possible to estimate how much ammunition could have been stored there based on its design.
The GRAU arsenal near Kotluban covers about two square kilometers and contains more than 90 separate ammunition storage sites. Considering the design of similar GRAU arsenals, such as the 51st with 3.5 square kilometers and 264,000 tons capacity, the Kotluban arsenal likely had a design capacity of about 150,000 tons of ammunition.
At the same time, the current number of shells, their types, and other details remain unknown. It should also be noted that the arsenal may have stored less ammunition than usual—or, conversely, more. In any case, the facility was actively used, as the Ukrainian Defense Forces have already attacked it several times.
Attacks are known to have occurred on November 16 and 24, 2023, as well as on March 8, 2024, but local authorities had never previously announced the evacuation of residents from nearby settlements.
This is the second GRAU arsenal that Ukraine has successfully attacked since the beginning of 2026 The current year's series of strikes began with an attack on the 100th GRAU arsenal near the town of Neya in Kostroma Oblast. This strike was the most distant among all similar operations conducted so far.
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