Ukraine's Drone attacks at Russian airfields destroyed 41 aircraft and also Tu-22M3 and Tu-95 strategic bombers :::: "Warfare as we knew it just a decade ago, is over" ::: Operation was launched from lorries parked near military airfields inside Russia !!

'Ukraine carried out the operation by launching drones from lorries parked near military airfields deep inside Russia'

The Russian media has termed these attacks a ‘Pearl Harbour’, referring to the Imperial Japanese Navy’s surprise attack on the US Fleet in Hawaii in 1941. That attack brought the US into the Second World War.

Ukraine claimed the attack caused $7 billion in damage, with multiple combat planes destroyed in the attack. 

The attacks at these Russian airfields are said to have destroyed 41 aircraft, including A-50 early-warning planes and Tu-22M3 and Tu-95 strategic bombers, most of which are now out of production and extremely difficult to replace. Russia is estimated to have less than 100 strategic bombers, and around a third of that fleet is impacted with this attack.

Over 100 drones were flown out of shipping containers which discharged the pre-programmed vertical lift drones as they passed near Russian airbases. 

The bombers were those used to target Ukrainian positions during the war using stand-off weapons like cruise missiles and bombs. 

How is it a game-changer ? 

The Operation 'Spider's Web' ticks all the boxes of Admiral William McRaven’s theory of Special Operations — a simple plan, carefully concealed, repeatedly and realistically rehearsed, and executed with speed and surprise.

It weaponised civilian logistics, remotely carrying out the attacks without any of its personnel being captured.

On the eve of peace talks, the drone attack on four separate airfields was part of a sharp ramping up of the three-year war, with Russia launching waves of drones at Ukraine, while Moscow said sabotage was to blame for two train derailments that left seven people dead.

(Similar examples ..

Israel carried out two of the world’s most complex special missions — the hostage rescue at Entebbe airport, Uganda in July 1976, where over 100 Israeli soldiers flew over 3000 km across hostile territory to rescue 106 Israeli passengers, killing the terrorists and destroying one-fourth of the Ugandan Air Force on the ground. 

In 2023, Mossad booby-trapped pagers in 2023 to kill and wound over 1000 Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.

India’s largest special forces operation. Operation Jackpot, planned by the Indian Navy and carried out by Mukti Bahini naval commandos on the night of August 15, 1971, simultaneously attacked four Pakistani ports across (then) East Pakistan, sinking and damaging 22 merchant ships. The attacks were carried out at four ports — Chittagong, Chalna-Mongla, Narayanganj and Chandpur — in a 500 square km box.

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Importantly, the Russia-Ukraine war, it can be argued, is a proxy war between Moscow and NATO. 

In Spider’s Web however, Ukraine has emphasised that the attacks were carried out on its own without NATO / Western support. 

President Volodomyr Zelenesky emphasised in a post on X that the ‘result was achieved solely by Ukraine’. This was done to minimise potential fallout on the West. The attack used Ukrainian drones and was quickly owned up by the Ukrainian government. No Western-supplied weapons like the long-range Taurus missiles were used. Ukraine released images to show they used commercially available high-resolution satellite imagery to target the bombers parked in the open. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the operation as “an absolutely brilliant result” and said the Ukrainians’ actions will “undoubtedly be in the history books”. He said planning for the operation began 18 months ago, and those involved “were withdrawn from Russian territory in time”.

The attack comes close on the heels of a stepping up of Russia’s bombing of Ukrainian cities and was timed just ahead of crucial talks between the two sides. 

A new round of peace talks is scheduled to start in Istanbul on June 2.

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Specialised drones called FPV drones were smuggled into Russia, along with mobile wooden cabins. The cabins were carried by trucks with the drones hidden inside. The cabin roofs opened remotely – and then the drones took off, zoned in on the nearby bases to precisely mount the attacks.

Ukraine claimed the attack caused $7 billion in damage, with multiple combat planes destroyed in the attack. The Russian defence ministry on Sunday said Ukraine launched FPV drone attacks on five airbases across the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, adding that all strikes on the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur airfields were successfully repelled.

It was 150 drones in shipping containers or trucks that took out a reported 1/3 of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet and unmanned surface drones that neutered the Black Fleet. 

"Warfare as we knew it just a decade ago, is over,” according to Alex Plitsas, a nonresident senior fellow with the Middle East Programs’ Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative.

Experts say it was one of significant raiding actions in modern warfare, given that the mission was planned for 18 months. This differed from the sort of attacks Ukraine has mounted so far – larger fixed-wing drones attacking at night, closer to areas adjoining Russia’s border with Ukraine. 

These attacks were carried out by the SBU, Ukraine’s main security agency. The agency released footage in which its chief, Vasily Maliuk, said: “Russian strategic bombers… all burning delightfully.” Commentators on X aligned to Ukraine’s security services indicated that over a 100 quadcopter FPV drones with bombs were smuggled into Russia for the operations. These were then meticulously housed in specially-built wooden cabins, loaded on top of lorries and then released after the roofs of the cabins were retracted remotely.

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