Ukraine has 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.
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.
Ukraine’s security service, the SBU, confirmed the nation was behind the attack and claimed to have hit $7billion (£5.2billion) worth of military equipment.
It also claimed to have destroyed ‘34% of strategic cruise missile carriers at the main airfields of the Russian Federation’, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has described the attack as one for the ‘history books.’
Both military sites are thousands of miles from Ukraine but were ‘under drone attack’, with dozens of Moscow’s nuclear capable warplanes evidently destroyed.
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.
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!’
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.’
Worryingly, Ukraine did not notify the United States in advance of drone attacks carried out on Russian air bases, a Ukrainian government official told Reuters on Sunday.
Ukraine’s domestic intelligence agency, the SBU, said it was responsible for the attacks on four bases and a security official said a total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit.
Kremlin cheerleaders immediately heaped blame on the West, and called for revenge strikes, including on Britain.
Pundit Sergei Mardan: ‘The drones that attacked the Irkutsk region were launched from a truck.
‘Similarly, drones that flew out of a truck attacked objects in the Murmansk region.
‘It’s even interesting why no one in London, Berlin or at least in Tallinn is afraid that a swarm of drones will suddenly fly out of a truck parked in the area of a military facility.’
The strike comes ahead of peace talks tomorrow due in Istanbul.
Today, Zelensky set out Ukraine’s positions for the Istanbul talks, which include a complete and unconditional ceasefire, the release of prisoners and the return of kidnapped children.
So far, Putin has rejected many of these demands, including the call for an unconditional ceasefire, and has repeatedly made several demands that Ukraine has outright refused.
Ukraine has said that Russia’s refusal to share its own terms ahead of the talks is a strategy to delay negotiations, which officials say shows Russia is not interested in a ceasefire.
Rybar war channel in Russia said: ‘The attack was carried out by FPV drones that were launched from vans that arrived at the facilities.
‘Control was conducted through repeaters installed there via satellite communications.
‘As we have previously said, the Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic aircraft have long been taken out of production, and there is nothing to restore them.
‘Accordingly, these losses cannot be recovered.
‘This is without understatement a very serious damage to the strategic component, caused both by serious miscalculations in the work of intelligence services, and negligent attitude to aircraft, which even after all the attacks stood in the open field without shelter.’
Unconfirmed reports indicated further strikes at Russia’s nuclear submarine base Severomorsk in the Arctic, headquarters of the Northern Fleet.
Footage appeared to show black smoke at the scene on the Kola Peninsula following explosions at the secret base.
It was unclear what had been hit.
Some reports said the footage showed Olenegorsk elsewhere in Murmansk region.
An astonishing video also showed how drones rose out of the back of a nondescript truck in Irkutsk region as attacks were launched on Putin’s strategic sites.
Ukraine evidently used drones from the back of trucks costing as little as £150 to £400.
They destroyed Putin’s fabled Tu-95MS bombers costing up to £70 million.
‘This is the Russian Pearl Harbour. We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbour, or even harsher,’ said pro-war pundit Roman Alekhin.
Nuclear submarines carrying strategic missile weapons are based here at the high-security outpost.
The helplessness of Putin’s vast security forces was striking.
DshRG Rusich channel raged: ‘Another disgrace… Let’s see who will be held responsible for this: the FSB, the traffic police (which released the trucks for money), the bloggers who criticise this?’
Despite the attack, Russian negotiators were reported to have flown to Istanbul for talks scheduled tomorrow.
Reported said all 4 Tu-95MS aircraft located at the Olenya airfield were destroyed.
More than 95 strategic bombers and about 20 other military aircraft were under attack.
The strikes were ‘carried out by FPV drones, which were manually controlled by UAV operators’, said reports.
Two Majors military channel said: ‘This is a direct undermining of the nuclear strategic balance of power.
‘This is a reduction in the nuclear security of our country.
‘And Kyiv is counting on an ‘asymmetrical response’ of a non-nuclear nature.
‘We have been responding asymmetrically for four years now, the enemy has long studied us.’
The channel called for a stronger response and ‘so that there is no one to howl in Kyiv’.
Unconfirmed reports said the driver of one of the ‘drone trucks’ had been strangled after he was detained.