@ Tim Bouma
2025-06-02 10:26:47
A transport truck full of drones taking out an entire military airfield. I feel like I am reading an updated version of Rogue Heroes.
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Ukraine Strikes Destroy Planes Inside Russia
BY JANE L YTVYNENKO
The Wall Street Journal
Jun 02, 2025
Clandestine drone attacks deal conflict’s biggest blow against long-range bombers
KYIV—Ukraine launched audacious drone attacks on four military airports inside Russia, destroying more than 40 warplanes in the biggest blow of the war against Moscow’s long-range bomber fleet.
The attack, dubbed “Spider’s Web,” took a year and a half to prepare, officials at Ukraine’s main security and intelligence agency, the SBU, said on Sunday.
Ukraine’s drones targeted Russia’s Belaya, Ivanovo, Dyagilevo and Olenya air bases, all of which house Russian military planes.
The bombardment is a significant victory for Ukraine’s deep-strike program, which uses drones to target crucial materiel on Russia’s soil. Ukraine’s intelligence agency has used sea drones and longrange bombing drones to strike inside Russia.
Video of the attack taken by drones showed smoke emanating from planes at Belaya airfield near Russia’s border with Mongolia, according to footage shared by Ukrainian intelligence officials.
“This is how nice the Belaya airfield looks now,” Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, head of Ukraine’s intelligence agency, said in the video.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address that the “absolutely unique operation” involved 117 drones.
The base of the operation was located near an office of Russia’s Federal Security Service, he said, adding, “We will defend ourselves with all available methods.”
Ukrainian intelligence officials said the agency moved the small quadcopter drones to Russian territory. It then moved wooden containers to Russia, which were used to hide the drones ahead of the attack.
When it came time to strike, the containers were placed on trucks and the lids of the containers were opened remotely. The swarm of drones flew out to find their targets.
In a video posted to social
media, a drone appeared to take off out of a container with a buzzing sound. Shots rang out in an apparent attempt to down it. Another drone flew out of the container in the same direction.
In another video, an explosion strikes a plane parked at an airport.
“This is not yet a knockout, but quite a serious knockdown for the enemy,” said Iryna Vereshchuk, a top official in Zelensky’s office. “This is exactly what wars of the future will look like.”
Ukraine didn’t provide advance notice to the Trump administration of its strikes against Russia’s air bases, a senior U.S. official said.
Russia’s defense ministry called the operation a terrorist attack.
The scope of the damage would take time to assess, but it appeared to be a significant blow to Russia’s long-range aviation capacity, said Justin Bronk, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
“Ukrainian special services have struck by far the heaviest blow of the war against the Russian Long Range Aviation bomber fleet,” Bronk said.
While the operation was a boost to Ukraine, the front line remains hotly contested as Russia embarks on another summer offensive, focusing its forces in the southeast and along the border region of Sumy but not achieving a breakthrough.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations are set to meet on Monday in Istanbul for negotiations aimed at ending the war. Zelensky said Ukrainians are demanding a full ceasefire, the release of prisoners and the return of the children Russia abducted. Russia hasn’t sent its proposals ahead of the talks, Ukrainian officials said.
While previous talks made little progress to halt fighting, the two sides agreed to a large prisoner swap.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Sunday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and reiterated President Trump’s call for continued direct talks between Russia and Ukraine.
Losing dozens of long-range aircraft vital to Russia’s nuclear forces and its attacks on Ukraine would gravely damage Russian military strength.
Russia no longer produces the Tu-95MS or Tu-22M3 planes that were among those damaged, Ukrainian intelligence officials said.
Russia before the attacks had 54 Tu-22M3s and 58 Tu-95MSs, according to Military Balance+, a database produced by the International Institute of Strategic Studies, a London think tank. It isn’t clear how many of those planes were operational.
In Russia, old planes have long been kept and cannibalized for spare parts. The Tu-95, which first flew in the 1950s, is powered by propellers, not jet engines.
Crippling the planes lessens Russia’s ability to carry out the combined airstrikes it has used to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses with drones while launching difficult-to-intercept missiles, said George Barros, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War.
“By killing the archers instead of intercepting the arrows, it’s a more effective way to degrade Russian capabilities,” Barros said.
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