Dramatic new footage recorded by Ukrainian attack drones has laid bare the devastation they inflicted on Russian airbases during Operation Spiderweb.
The covert mission – overseen in secret by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and hailed as one of Kyiv’s biggest wartime achievements – used hundreds of first-person view (FPV) drones to strike at the heart of Moscow’s air force.
The state-of-the-art weapons were smuggled into Russia in wooden containers on the back of lorries, with the deadly cargo disguised as modular homes and transported by unsuspecting Russian drivers.
The vehicles were parked near strategic airbases before their roofs opened remotely, unleashing swarms of drones that targeted and destroyed bombers on the ground.
The strikes took place on Sunday, with footage released today showing flames engulfing aircraft at four military airfields – Olenya in the Arctic region of Murmansk; Dyagilevo in western Russia; Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow; and Podmoskovye in Moscow.
Sources inside Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed the operation crippled 34 per cent of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers, including the nuclear-capable Tu-95s and Tu-22s, often used to launch cruise missiles into Ukraine.
Other aircraft which were hit included the nuclear-capable Tu-160 bomber, the An-12 transport plane and the Il-78 tanker, according to the SBU.
The footage was released as new satellite images of Belaya airbase have shown severe damage to at least three Tu-95s, according to analysts.
In total Ukraine says 41 aircraft were damaged or destroyed with damage valued at around £1.5 billion.
A share of the successfully targeted aircraft were destroyed completely while others will take a long time to repair, the SBU said.
Some of the drones carried the mission out using AI, according to reports, and flew via a route that was programmed into them before the attack was launched.
The new footage was shown as Putin held a video conference with senior officials.
It was the first time he had been seen publicly since the humiliating Sunday strikes.
His security officials reported that two train crashes on the same day were caused by Ukrainian saboteurs blowing up rail bridges.
At least some of the trucks belonged to former DJ Artem Timofeev, suspected by Russian law enforcement off being a Ukrainian agent.
A huge manhunt has been launched for his and his wife Ekaterina ‘Katya’ Timofeeva, 34, who is suspected to have aided him. The pair have gone missing, say reports.
Putin-backing Readovka media outlet reported: ‘Artem is now wanted in connection with a terrorist attack in Irkutsk region.
‘Four lorries were registered in his name, and one of them was the source of the drones that launched [in an attack on a Putin airbase].’
His wife ‘has not been online for two weeks, and she has scrubbed all her active social media accounts.’
Relatives of the couple declined to comment, according to Readovka.
A flat in Chelyabinsk has been linked to Timofeev where he was reportedly seen a week ago.
Reports are divided as to whether he was born in Zhytomyr Ukraine, or occupied Donetsk region.
Both he and his wife were reportedly supporters in Kyiv of the Ukrainian revolution in 2014, which toppled pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Later they moved to Russia, where she also worked as a stylist and tattoo artist.
He set up a haulage sole proprietorship in December 2024, and ran several lorries.
In his marriage certificate, Timofeev’s patronymic – middle name – is listed as Igorevich, while in a Russian wanted notice he is referred to as Valeryevich. It is unclear if he had sought to alter his name.
He is specifically wanted over the strike against a Russian airbase in Irkutsk region.
In 2014–2015, he lived in Kyiv, and mingled with local musicians, frequently attending parties.
Reports say he co-owned a local clothing brand, posting photos from the Euromaidan protests, and mocking ex-president Yanukovych.
Ukraine’s SBU secret service said its main agents in the audacious strikes on the air bases had already left Russia.
Zelensky today urged Kyiv’s military backers to ramp up support in a bid to pressure Russia towards peace.
‘We must not allow Russia to blur reality or mislead the world. Moscow must be forced into diplomacy,’ Zelensky said in a video address to defence ministers meeting in Brussels.
And after Sunday’s devastating blow to Moscow, German defence minister Boris Pistorius said today that military success by Russia in its war in Ukraine was neither imminent nor to be expected.