Ukraine’s June 2025 Operation Spiderweb destroyed roughly 7 Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers and damaged 2 others in a single coordinated strike — the worst Russian bomber loss since the Second World War. Ukrainian first-person view drones were smuggled deep inside Russia in hidden compartments atop commercial transport trucks and struck Olenya, Belaya, and other air bases at the same time. Across the war, Ukraine has damaged or destroyed about a dozen Russian Tu-95s. Russia cannot easily replace the platform — the Tu-95 is a legacy Cold War design and the newer Tu-160 is produced slowly and expensively. Bombers have been pushed steadily farther from the front.
Tu-95 Bear Bomber: Explained
Tu-95 Infographic from Russia Government.
Ukraine’s strike campaigns against Russia’s long-range fleet of bomber aircraft have come in several waves.
Beginning with relatively small strikes in late 2022, they have since escalated dramatically into long-range strikes in 2024 and 20205 against Russia’s long-range strategic bombers, used to launch stand-off munitions against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.
Tu-95: In the Beginning
Some of Ukraine’s first major hits against Russian aircraft occurred in late 2022, when Ukrainian drones struck Russia’s Engels Air Base.
Engels is one of the main air bases for Russia’s Tu-95 fleet, and though Russian authorities have acknowledged the attacks happened, they have downplayed the severity of Ukraine’s strikes.
Conversely, Ukraine has touted the attacks’ efficacy, though later analyses suggest damage may not have been as extensive as initially claimed.
Still, open-source imagery examined following Ukraine’s strikes on Engels shows that at least a pair of Tu-95s were damaged in December, while a later, follow-up strike may have caused some initial damage.
Tu-95. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Ukraine’s strikes against Russia’s long-range bomber fleet are perhaps more noteworthy not for the damage done to the fleet, but for how far away from the front line Ukraine has managed to land strikes against Russia’s nuclear-capable bomber fleet, forcing a reassessment of aircraft dispersal strategies that had been assumed to be safely out of range far to the rear relative to the front.
Though Ukraine prosecuted a number of strikes against bomber bases in Russia, and indeed, against a variety of other targets around the country, confirmed strikes against Russian bombers, and the Tu-95 in particular, were rather unclear.
But Russia appeared to shift its strategic bomber force between Engels Air Base and Olenya, another base, in an apparent attempt to complicate Ukrainian targeting.
One of the next major Ukrainian hits on Russia’s Tu-95 fleet came in the spring of 2024.
In April, Ukrainian drone strikes targeted a number of Russian air bases simultaneously, an attack that included the already-struck base at Engels.
Initial reporting from Ukrainian sources and open-source analyses suggested that one Tu-95 may have been completely destroyed, with a pair of additional Tu-95s damaged but repairable.
Tu-95 Bomber Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Operation Spiderweb
But by far the biggest-profile strike by Ukraine came in June 2025, when it launched Operation Spiderweb.
During that attack, bomb-laden Ukrainian FPV drones struck several air bases in Russia nearly simultaneously, with hits against Olenya and Belaya air bases and elsewhere.
It was the most damaging loss to Russian strategic bombers since the Second World War.
Though Operation Spiderweb was notable for both its novelty — Ukrainian FPV drones were smuggled into Russia in hidden compartments atop commercial transport trucks — it was also a remarkably successful surprise attack against some of Russia’s most important aircraft.
Some sources have tallied seven Tu-95s destroyed and two others damaged.
Though some sources cite higher numbers, the claim is difficult to independently confirm. In any case, the strike also hit other strategic bombers in the Russian fleet, representing a sharp blow to the Kremlin.
Tu-95 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Old And Irreplaceable
The war in Ukraine has damaged or destroyed about a dozen of Russia’s Tu-95 bombers.
Though Russia indeed has other bomber aircraft, the strikes against the Tu-95 are particularly acute, as it is a platform Russia cannot easily replace. The bomber is a legacy Cold War-era design that is still in service today because it lacks a viable substitute.
Russia still produces Tu-160 bombers — a much more modern design —, but production is slow and costly.
Consequently, Tu-95s have remained in service despite being decades old, stretching the force but also causing long-term maintenance and repair issues due to the dearth of spare parts for that bomber.
Operationally, Ukrainian strikes against the bomber fleet have also had a lasting operational effect.
Russia has been forced to disperse its bomber fleet increasingly far from the front in Ukraine, as well as redirecting and diluting air defense assets to protect those aircraft.
So while Ukraine’s repeated strikes against Russia’s long-range strategic bomber fleet have not been successful in eliminating that threat entirely, they have forced the costly dispersal of those bombers to locales farther afield and forced Russia to spend more time, manpower, fuel, and air defense resources to protect its strategic bomber aviation fleet.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the shifting battle lines in Donbas and writing about the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.
