51�Թ�

But by the following summer, it was producing its own variant, known as Geran, at a special economic zone in Yelabuga, in the Russian republic of Tatarstan.

One Russian republic, Bashkortostan, has seen the highest numbers of casualties, with 4,836 confirmed deaths.

On Friday, Russian authorities acknowledged that Ukrainian drones were targeting Grozny, provincial capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya, as an Azerbaijani commercial airliner with 67 people aboard was attempting to land there on Wednesday.

Footage of the wrecked fuselage appeared to indicate shrapnel damage and some aviation experts suggested the Azerbaijani Airlines plane may have been been hit by air defence systems over the Russian republic of Chechnya.

That summer, Vladimir Putin’s brutal war against separatists in Chechnya – launched four years earlier – had already burst beyond the borders of the southern Russian republic.