Alert – Nato must brace to be attacked by Putin warns Germany’s defence chief – as Zelensky celebrates ‘brilliant, historic’ drone strike that ‘wiped out a third of Russia’s strategic bombers in $7billion blitz’

Germany’s defence chief has starkly warned that NATO should be prepared for a possible attack by Russia in the next four years. 

General Carsten Breuer said Russia poses a ‘very serious threat’ to the Western defence bloc, the likes of which he has never seen in his 40-year military career.’

The warning comes amid one of Ukraine’s most audacious attacks, in which it used a swarm of kamikaze drones unleashed from the backs of trucks to devastate $7billion worth of equipment at two of Russia’s most critical airfields. 

Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, claimed to have destroyed ‘34% of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation’.

President Volodymyr Zelensky described the attack as one for the ‘history books’, revealing it took 18 months to plan the top-secret mission dubbed ‘Operation Spiderweb’.

He added that 117 drones were used – each with their own pilot – and that the headquarters of the operation were ‘right next to the FSB’, Russia’s security service. 

Breuer pointed to the massive increase in Vladimir Putin’s armoury and ammunitions stock, including a massive output of 1,500 main battle tanks every year as well as the four million rounds of 152mm artillery munition produced in 2024 alone. 

He said that not all of these additional military equipment was going to Ukraine, which signalled a possible building up of capabilities that could be used against the NATO bloc, adding that Baltic states were at a particularly high risk of being attacked. 

‘There’s an intent and there’s a build up of the stocks’ for a possible future attack on Nato’s Baltic state members,’ he told the BBC.

Russian TU-95 Bear strategic bombers at the Olenya airbase on the Kola Peninsula being destroyed by Ukrainian drones thousands of miles away from the front line 

Vladimir Putin’s (pictured) planes were destroyed in the attack

Ukrainian choppers seen over Russian territory 

Ukraine’s SBU was in charge of the major operation

‘This is what the analysts are assessing – in 2029. So we have to be ready by 2029… If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that’s not earlier than 2029? I would say no, it’s not. So we must be able to fight tonight,’ he said.

Breuer said that the Suwalki Gap, a region that borders Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus, was particularly vulnerable to Russian military activity. 

‘The Baltic States are really exposed to the Russians, right? And once you are there, you really feel this… in the talks we are having over there,’ he said.

The Estonians, he said, had given the analogy of being close to a wildfire where they ‘feel the heat, see the flames and smell the smoke’, while in Germany ‘you probably see a little bit of smoke over the horizon and not more’.

Earlier this week, David Petraeus, a respected former US general and CIA chief, claimed Lithuania would be most at risk to an attack from Russia. 

He said Russia could launch an incursion into that Baltic state to test Western resolve or as a precursor to a wider offensive. 

Breuer urged fellow NATO nations to build up their militaries again, following a long period of demilitarisation across dozens of nations.

‘What we have to do now is really to lean in and to tell everybody, hey, ramp up… get more into it because we need it. We need it to be able to defend ourselves and therefore also to build up deterrence’, he said. 

But with NATO apparently falling apart, amid a surge of distrust between each of its member states, Breuer was quick to allay fears that NATO wouldn’t be cohesive enough to fight Russia. 

He pointed to Finland and Sweden’s ascension into the bloc: ‘I’ve never seen such a unity like it is now’ among nations and military leaders. 

‘All of them understand the threat that is at the moment approaching Nato, all understand that we have to develop a direction of deterrence, into the direction of collective defence. This is clear to everyone. The urgency is seen.’ 

NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have, since Russia invaded Ukraine, have developed closer relations with Putin, in many instances using their powers in groups like the EU and NATO to push the dictator’s agenda.

Russian Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk region, Siberia, was ablaze today after a suspected drone strike linked to Ukraine

Russian TU-95 Bear strategic bombers at the Olenya airbase on the Kola Peninsula being destroyed by Ukrainian drones thousands of miles away from the front line

And US president Donald Trump, who commands the largest military in the bloc, has consistently sided with Putin on military matters, especially when it comes to NATO. 

Just yesterday his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, declared that Russia’s historic feud with NATO were ‘fair.’ 

Asked by ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: ‘It’s a fair concern.’

‘We’ve said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we’re not the only country that says that’.

Shortly before Breuer’s comments, Ukraine launched one of its most audacious attacks of the war using a ‘swarm’ of kamikaze drones unleashed from the backs of trucks to devastate two of Russia’s most major airfields. 

Dubbed ‘Operation Spiderweb’, the co-ordinated strikes have left Vladimir Putin humiliated and his prized warplanes in smouldering ruins, though Moscow has claimed to have ‘repelled’ all the attacks. 

Malyuk’s agency was in charge of the major operation

Zelensky claimed that this attack was one for the ‘history books’

Zelensky said on social media that the operation had ‘an absolutely brilliant result’, adding that it was one ‘achieved solely by Ukraine.’

He said in a post: ‘One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. 

‘Our most long-range operation. Our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time.’

 ‘Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books,’ he adds.

‘Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war. Russia started this war, Russia must end it. Glory to Ukraine!’

He added that 117 drones were used, each with their own individual pilot. 

He added: ‘The most interesting thing – and we can already say this publicly – is that the “office” of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB of Russia in one of their regions.’

Two remote military airfields, Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region and Belaya in eastern Siberia, were rocked by massive explosions overnight, with dramatic footage showing fires raging for hours. 

The bases, located thousands of miles from Ukraine, are key to Russia’s nuclear strike capability and were considered untouchable.  

Yet Ukraine appears to have struck them with deadly precision, using first-person-view (FPV) drones launched from unmarked vans parked near the airfields. 

Both are thousands of miles from Ukraine but were ‘under drone attack’, with dozens of Moscow’s nuclear capable warplanes evidently destroyed.

Aftermath of the Russian attack on Kherson, Ukraine on June 1, 2025

The Russian army launched a combined strike on the Dniprovskyi district of Kherson, Ukraine

Olenya airbase is home to Russia’s ageing fleet of Tu-95 ‘Bear’ bombers – used both for conventional missile strikes and capable of launching nuclear weapons against the West. Several of the aircraft were reportedly left exposed in the open, despite repeated Ukrainian attacks on similar facilities.

Ablaze, too, was Belaya nuclear airbase in eastern Siberia’s Irkutsk region – some 2,900 miles from Ukraine.

More alarmingly, the strikes have triggered frenzied calls within Russia’s military circles for a nuclear response. ‘Disabling strategic aircraft gives Russia the right to use nuclear weapons,’ declared pro-Kremlin war analyst Vladislav Pozdnyakov. ‘Let me remind you.’  

Russia’s nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear response in the event of an attack on ‘critical government or military infrastructure’.

In particular, ‘an enemy attack that disrupts the operation of nuclear forces, threatening Russia’s ability to respond’ could lead to Putin ordering an atomic strike.

Ukraine’s SBU secret service was reportedly conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy Russian bombers.

This video grab from a handout footage released by Russia’s emergency ministry on June 1, 2025 shows specialists working at the scene after a road bridge collapsed onto a railway line late on May 31, 2025 

Zelensky was seen congratulating the Head of the Security Service Vasyl Malyuk

The Ukrainian media claimed more than 40 Putin aircraft had been hit, including Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and A-50 strategic bombers.

The damage to the enemy was alleged to exceed £1.5billion.

A driver of a truck filled with drones that attacked Olenegorsk in Murmansk ‘may not have known about the cargo’, said a report.

According to Baza media, the driver has been detained.

‘A truck stopped at a gas station at the entrance to the city… drones started flying out of the back of the truck and then attacked various objects,’ said a report.

A similar account was heard from Siberia but there are no official comments yet.

Ukraine’s Pravda Gerashchenko Telegram channel said: ‘A special operation ‘Web’ is being conducted to demilitarise Russia.

‘The [SBU] report the destruction of Russian bomber aircraft behind enemy lines.

‘ In particular, the destruction of more than 40 aircraft, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3.’

The audacious strike was described as ‘Russia’s Pearl Harbour’ and the ‘blackest day in aviation’ for the country by pro-Putin Telegram channels.

Russia’s ministry of defence said in a Telegram post that Ukraine had carried out a ‘terrorist attack’ in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur.

It claimed that all of the attacks were ‘repelled’, adding: ‘As a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several pieces of aviation equipment caught fire.’