The BBC's Paul Adams reflects on the impact of Ukraine's major drone attack on Russian bombers.
When I first glanced at the headline about Ukraine's drone attack on Russian military planes I thought it was similar to times in the past when they took out two or three planes at Russian bases. But when I saw all the details, it was more like: "HOLY FUCK!"
Ukraine not only took out a bunch of Russia's most expensive military aircraft, but they did it in an ingenious and painstaking way. Planning for this apparently began in late 2023.
It's hard to exaggerate the sheer audacity - or ingenuity - that went into Ukraine's countrywide assault on Russia's air force. We cannot possibly verify Ukrainian claims that the attacks resulted in $7bn (Β£5.2bn) of damage, but it's clear that "Operation Spider's Web" was, at the very least, a spectacular propaganda coup. Ukrainians are already comparing it with other notable military successes since Russia's full-scale invasion, including the sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, and the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, both in 2022, as well as a missile attack on Sevastopol harbour the following year. Judging by details leaked to the media by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the latest operation is the most elaborate achievement so far. In an operation said to have taken 18 months to prepare, scores of small drones were smuggled into Russia, stored in special compartments aboard freight trucks, driven to at least four separate locations, thousands of miles apart, and launched remotely towards nearby airbases.
The drones were launched inside Russia from modified cargo containers on trucks. The destroyed aircraft included those used to launch missiles against Ukrainian civilians.
"These strategic bombers are capable of launching long-range strikes against us," he said. "There are only 120 of them and we struck 40. That's an incredible figure." It is hard to assess the damage, but Ukrainian military blogger Oleksandr Kovalenko says that even if the bombers, and command and control aircraft were not destroyed, the impact is enormous. "The extent of the damage is such that the Russian military-industrial complex, in its current state, is unlikely to be able to restore them in the near future," he wrote on his Telegram channel. The strategic missile-carrying bombers in question, the Tu-95, Tu-22, and Tu-160 are, he said, no longer in production. Repairing them will be difficult, replacing them impossible.
Russia likes to think it is invincible. These successful attacks, as far north as the Kola Peninsula and as far east as south central Siberia, are a psychological blow as well as a military one to Russians.
This is the best overall description of Operation Spiderweb. The narrator is author and retired US Navy Seal Chuck Pfarrer.
Back to the BBC article...
Ukrainian defence journalist Illia Ponomarenko, posting on X, puts it another way, with a pointed reference to President Volodymyr Zelensky's infamous Oval office encounter with Donald Trump. "This is what happens when a proud nation under attack doesn't listen to all those: 'Ukraine has only six months left'. 'You have no cards'. 'Just surrender for peace, Russia cannot lose'." Even more pithy was a tweet from the quarterly Business Ukraine journal, which proudly proclaimed "It turns out Ukraine does have some cards after all. Today Zelensky played the King of Drones."
That comment from Business Ukraine sparked this meme...
Ukraine has plenty of cards, and it ain't bluffing.
REMINDER: Putin's "3-day special operation" in Ukraine began 1,195 days ago. Putin's continued pointless aggression suggests that he's not playing with a full deck.
