Key Points: Ukraine’s “Operation Spiderweb” on June 1st, 2025, involved a daring and meticulously planned SBU drone attack that struck multiple Russian airbases deep within Russia, reportedly destroying or damaging approximately 41 aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22M strategic bombers and an A-50 AWACS.
-The operation, 18 months in the making, utilized 117 FPV drones launched from concealed truck-borne containers smuggled near the targets.
-This “Pearl Harbor” style assault, causing an estimated $7 billion in damage and impacting a significant portion of Russia’s bomber fleet, represents a major tactical success for Ukraine and a significant blow to Russian prestige and air power.
Ukraine’s ‘Pearl Harbor’: How Drones Destroyed 40+ Russian Bombers
A daring Ukrainian drone attack, 18 months in the making, destroyed about 40 percent of Russia’s bomber fleet, causing $7 billion in actual damages but untold damage to Russian national prestige.
The drone attack was likened to Russia’s “Pearl Harbor,” the attack on the US Pacific Fleet that dragged the United States into World War II.
Now, the world wonders how Russia will respond to this devastating attack. Opinions on the possible Russian options are incredibly varied. However, first, we’ll examine how this planning and operation all unfolded.
Ukraine’s Drone Attack, What We Know Thus Far
This drone attack by Ukraine was designed to show Russia that, despite the constant bombing of Ukrainian civilian targets, Russia isn’t immune to attacks deep inside their territory, albeit against strictly military targets.
The Russian Ministry of Defense admitted that Ukraine attacked airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, claiming to have thwarted attacks on three of the bases.
Ukraine released a video from the Olenya Air Base in the Murmansk region and the Belaya Air Base in Russia’s far eastern Irkutsk region, 2,500 miles away from the Ukrainian front lines, that clearly showed multiple aircraft being destroyed, including strategic bombers. In all, 41 Russian aircraft were destroyed or damaged.
Other Ukrainian videos showed how the Ukrainian security services, known as the SBU, were able to get the drones inside Russia and then launch them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that 117 drones were used in the attacks, known as Operation Spiderweb, with a corresponding number of operators involved in remotely piloting the first-person view (FPV) drones.
Operation Spiderweb caught Russia’s military defenses off guard because they had designed their air defenses to turn back attacks by missiles or heavier, long-range strike drones.
Instead, the SBU used 117 cheap first-person-view (FPV) drones, each costing just a few hundred dollars, that were hidden in wooden crates loaded onto trucks, it said. They were somehow loaded onto Russian lorries and sent to locations near the Russian airfields.
The unsuspecting drivers took them right next to the airfields – and were shocked to see them fly out and cause damage amounting to $7 billion, the SBU said.
Adding to Russia’s national embarrassment, the Spiderweb’s command center was located in an undisclosed location in Russia, near an office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Moscow’s main intelligence agency, the successor to the KGB, which Russian President Vladimir Putin once headed.
“This is a slap on the face for Russia, for FSB, for Putin,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military’s general staff, said.
Significant Damage To Russia’s Bomber Fleet
Among the aircraft destroyed in the drone attack were multiple Tu-95 Bear, supersonic Tu-22M long-range bombers, and an A-50 airborne early warning and control (AWACS) aircraft.
The destruction of the Tu-95 Bear Cold War-era bombers is significant because, although the aircraft were built in the 1950s, they remain a substantial part of Russia’s bomber force and can’t be replaced since the production lines were shut down long ago.
The Tu-95K variant can carry and launch the Russian Kh-20 nuclear cruise missile, making it a very lethal threat given its range and payload capacity. It’s expected to remain in front-line Russian service until 2040.
The Russian Federation no longer produces the Tu-22M aircraft in any variant, as the last Tu-22M3 was produced in 1993.
What Will Be Putin’s Response?
Russia’s first reaction was to play down the damage done to its aircraft. One Russian military blogger, Rybar, run by Mikhail Zvinchuk, put the number of damaged Russian aircraft at 13, including up to 12 strategic bombers.
Another pro-Russian Telegram channel military blogger, Fighterbomber, believed to be run by Captain Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, said in a post on Monday that only “a handful” of strategic aircraft were hit, but even such a loss was “huge for a country that doesn’t make them.”
Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London, said, “This is a stunning success for Ukraine’s special services.”
“If even half the total claim of 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed is confirmed, it will have a significant impact on the capacity of the Russian Long Range Aviation force to keep up its regular large scale cruise missile salvos against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, whilst also maintaining their nuclear deterrence and signaling patrols against NATO and Japan,” he added in an email to the NYT.
Some believe that Russia won’t retaliate, instead opting to downplay the attacks as minor and continue their meat-grinding ground attacks. Others believe Putin will use tactical nukes to punish Kyiv and hasten their summer offensive.
In the wake of this drone attack, Putin’s Doomsday Radio burst into activity, spewing out codewords. The UVB-76 channel, which springs into life at moments of perceived danger, is a hangover from the Soviet period.
Another pro-Russian Telegram channel, Dva Mayora, added that it was “a reason to launch nuclear strikes on Ukraine” — a threat Putin has been using since the war began in 2022.
The drone strikes will likely increase the ante during the peace negotiations in Istanbul on Monday and will result in Russia struggling to replace aircraft that are no longer produced. However, their effects were somewhat muted during Monday’s meeting.
The feeling here is that the Russians will respond in their typical fashion by launching hundreds of drones and missiles in attacks on Ukraine’s civilians and civilian infrastructure. They’ll claim it is in retaliation, although they’ve been bombing Ukrainian civilians since Day 1 of the invasion.
But a nuclear attack? No. Putin will nuke his security and defense officials, who will be blamed for this fiasco.
Former GOP Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois wrote on X, “Important to note: the targeting of Russian bombers is COMPLETELY LEGAL and expected in a war. A response from Russia will target civilians and be a war crime. But it’s Russia. They bombed hospitals in Ukraine and Syria. They are…. A terrorist state.”
Dangerous Blueprint that All Countries Must Heed
While Ukraine highlighted an apparent weakness in Russia’s defenses, it is also a dangerous blueprint that terrorist organizations can use. It happened to them, but it can also happen to the US, where it is much easier to rent large trucks and send them even closer to US air bases.
About the Author:
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
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