Ukraine on alert for Russian counter-strikes

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

Vladimir Putin is poised to strike back at Ukraine after Kyiv delivered a devastating blow to the Russian air force on Sunday, with European defence officials warning that Moscow is stockpiling a massive contingent of battle tanks and ammunition. The Russian tyrant has stayed out of sight since the attacks on multiple air bases in Ukraine's audacious Operation Spiderweb - a top-secret mission some 18 months in the making, showing off Ukraine's capability to stagger the Russian invasion. But an insider warned that Putin 'will hit back at Ukraine' while also 'avenging his underlings who allowed this humiliation to happen'.
The sleeping FSB security service - headed by close ally Alexander Bortnikov, 73 - faces blame over Ukraine using a warehouse next door to an intelligence HQ in Chelyabinsk to prepare the drone strikes on his airbases. And Pro-Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomb, believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, acknowledged that Sunday would 'later be called a black day for Russian long-range aviation,' adding: 'And the day is not over yet.' Ukraine will now be bracing for Russia's response. Russia claimed it had intercepted 162 Ukrainian drones overnight, and struck back with a Shahed drone seen on video diving then exploding in a fireball in Izyum, Kharkiv region as it hit a target.
Germany's defence chief warned that Putin has fostered a massive increase in battle tanks - as many as 1,500 each year - and artillery, to be used against Ukraine, but also possibly signalling readiness for an attack on a NATO member. 'There's an intent and there's a build up of the stocks' for a possible future attack on Nato's Baltic state members,' General Carsten Breuer told the BBC as Ukraine struck deep into Russia, claiming to have destroyed 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers. Western military and intelligence officials told the Wall Street Journal previously that Russian military engineers were expanding army bases near the border with Finland, expected to house tens of thousands of troops in the coming years. Putin is expanding military recruitment, bolstering weapons production and upgrading railroad lines in these border areas, it reported.
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. 'We have to be ready by 2029,' he assessed. '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. 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 some of Russia's most major airfields. The strikes have left Vladimir Putin humiliated and his prized warplanes in smouldering ruins, though Moscow has claimed to have 'repelled' all the attacks.
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 said. In the wake of the heavy losses, Putin's Doomsday Radio burst into activity spewing out codewords. The UVB-76 channel - which springs into life at moments of perceived danger - is a hangover from the Soviet period. But as peace talks got underway in Istanbul on Monday, Ukraine followed up its Operation Spiderweb success with a series of new overnight assaults on Russian military targets.
Sunday's attack was carried out exactly 29 years to the day after Ukraine handed over dozens of the same strategic bombers to Russia, along with up to 2,000 strategic nuclear warheads and 176 ICBMs in exchange for a promise not to be attacked, under the Budapest Memorandum. In their most daring attack of the war to date, Ukrainian special forces first smuggled 117 first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones – which allow pilots to control them remotely through a live feed – into Russia. Then came mobile wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden compartments into which the small flying weapons were stashed. They were loaded on to civilian trucks heading into enemy territory, their hired local drivers seemingly unaware of what they were carrying.
Finally, yesterday afternoon, with all the lorries within range of five airfields stretching from northern Russia down to Siberia – a safe 2,500 miles from Ukraine – they struck. The roofs of the wooden cabins were opened remotely and the FPV drones took to the skies. With the help of front-positioned cameras, the missile-loaded drones headed straight for Russia's highly expensive bomber planes. Footage showed decimated enemy planes in flames on the runway and last night Ukrainian security sources claimed to have taken out 41 aircraft worth some £1.5billion.
There are only around 120 Tu-95s and Tu-22Ms in operation and they are vital for Putin 's nightly bombing raids on Ukraine. They had been moved to bases thousands of miles away from Ukraine, out of reach of Western-donated Storm Shadows and ATACMS which have a range of up to 185 miles. The FPVs, which can reach just 12 miles, would have been the last thing on Russian minds. Mr Zelensky last night claimed that the operation took out a third of Russia's strategic bombers and had been conducted under the noses of its secret service. He said: 'What's most interesting, is that the 'office' of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions. In total, 117 drones were used in the operation, with a corresponding number of drone operators involved, and 34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit. We will continue this work.'
Military blogger Roman Alekhin said the incident will go down as 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' - a reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War. But experts also drew comparisons to the 1942 SAS raid on the Sidi Haneish airfield in Egypt, when elite British commandos put 40 Luftwaffe aircraft out of action using jeeps mounted with machine guns. While the attack wasn't a pivotal moment in the Desert War, it massively boosted British morale and disrupted Axis logistics in North Africa. It was also one of the pivotal events that helped forge the legendary status of the SAS.
Former RAF pilot and military analyst Mikey Kay told the BBC : 'The Russians would never have expected something like this. I mean, it's genius, if you think about just the devastating effect that it's had on strategic assets of Putin.' Philip O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, said the raid was 'the most remarkable and successful operation of the war.' He told The Times: 'This is a big blow to Russian strategic air power, which is hard to overestimate. We do not know what the Russian reaction will be, however we can assume it will be violent.'
Mr Zelensky, who is said to have overseen the operation over the last year and a half, celebrated the strike on social media last night. The Ukrainian president wrote: 'A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation.' He added: 'These are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in [the] history books.' A delegation from Kyiv is due to meet counterparts from Moscow for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul today but it was not clear last night if it would still go ahead. Ukraine has said that its proposals will include a full 30-day ceasefire followed by the return of all prisoners held by each side. Negotiators also want some 20,000 Ukrainian children who were kidnapped by Russia to be repatriated before Mr Zelensky and Putin meet.
Russia has so far refused to agree to a 30-day pause in fighting and overnight on Saturday launched its largest strike of the war so far with 472 drones and seven missiles. Kyiv's Operation Spider's Web struck Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia; Dyagilevo air base in Ryazan, western Russia; Olenya air base in Murmansk, northern Russia; and Ivanovo air base in Ivanovo, central Russia. The fifth air base was yet to be identified last night. The operation, led by Mr Zelensky and security service boss Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, marks the first time Ukraine has struck targets inside Siberia. Kyiv put the cost of the damage at more than £1.5billion because each A-50 aircraft is valued at around £260million. Last night Russia was arresting the truck drivers, but hours earlier Ukraine had reported that its agents were safely home. FPV drones usually need a pilot within six miles which suggests Ukrainians may have been close to the airfields during the strikes.
Hours before the drone strikes a wave of bomb attacks targeted Russian bridges and railway lines in regions bordering Ukraine. Russia declared them 'acts of terrorism' with seven killed and dozens injured when a passenger train travelling to Moscow was derailed by a collapsed bridge in Bryansk on Saturday night. Hours later, in neighbouring Kursk where Ukraine launched its major cross-border incursion last August, a freight train was derailed by another fallen bridge. A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers yesterday and wounded more than 60 others, the Ukrainian army said.