Ukraine claimed it had carried out its largest long-range airstrikes against Russia since the war on Sunday, targeting 40 Russian warplanes at four military bases using drones.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the SBU security service’s operation, dubbed Spider’s Web, had used 117 drones, knocking out 34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile-carrying aircraft.
SBU sources had previously told BBC News that the attacks had taken a year and a half to plan. The drones, hidden in mobile wooden cabins, were brought to the airbases by truck and their roofs were opened remotely at the right time to launch the drones.
Russia confirmed the Ukrainian strikes in five regions and called them terrorist acts.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities have reported widespread drone and missile strikes on their territory overnight.
Amid these developments, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are heading to Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday for a second round of peace talks. Not much is expected from the talks, as the two warring parties remain divided on how to end the war.
In February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow now controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including the southern Crimean peninsula, which it annexed in 2014.
In a series of posts on social media late Sunday, Zelensky congratulated SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk on his “absolutely excellent results.” He said each of the 117 drones had its own pilot.
The Ukrainian president added that the most interesting thing – and we can now say it publicly – was that the ‘office’ of our operation was located on Russian territory, in one of their regions, right next to Russia’s FSB. The FSB is Russia’s powerful state security service.
Zelensky added that all those involved in the attack were safely evacuated from Russia before the attack.
The SBU estimated that the damage to Russia’s strategic aviation system was around $7 billion (£5 billion) and promised to release more details soon.
Ukraine’s claims have not been independently verified.
SBU sources told the BBC in a statement on Sunday that four Russian airbases – two of which are thousands of miles from Ukraine – were hit: Belaya, Irkutsk Oblast (region), Siberia; Oleny, Murmansk Oblast, north-west Russia; Diaghilev, central Ryazan Oblast; Ivanovo, central Ivanovo Oblast.
The SBU sources said the Russian aircraft hit included strategic nuclear-capable bombers Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, as well as A-50 early warning aircraft. They described the entire operation as logistically very complex.
The sources said the SBU first smuggled the FPV drones into Russia, followed by the mobile wooden cabins. Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which were installed on cargo vehicles. At the right moment, the roofs were opened by remote control, and the drones flew out to strike the Russian bombers.
Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed that the drones that attacked the military base in Sredne Bela, Siberia, were launched from a truck. Kobzev posted on Telegram that the launch site had been secured and that there was no risk to life.
Russian media also reported that other attacks had similarly started with drones emerging from lorries. One user was heard saying that the drones were flying from a Kamaz truck near a petrol station.
Source: BBC