Ukraine's drone attack the latest in a series of daring David versus Goliath hits against Russian targets

CNN

5 days ago

Ukraine's large-scale drone attack on Russian air bases thousands of miles behind the front lines is the latest in a long line of daring missions by Ukraine's forces against its giant neighbor.
The operation, more than a year and a half in the making, involved drones being smuggled into Russian territory and hidden in wooden mobile houses atop trucks, according to a source in the SBU, Ukraine's domestic intelligence agency.
The strikes caused an estimated $7 billion in damages and hit 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers at its main air bases, the source said. The assault also showed that Ukraine still has the ability to pressure Russia even as Moscow ramps up its own attacks and offensive operations.
Here's a look at some of the Ukrainian force's most significant hits during the war:
Analysts have called Ukraine's Sunday drone attack on the bomber bases the most significant by Kyiv since the beginning of the war.
More than 40 aircraft were known to have been hit in the operation, according to an SBU security source, including TU-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and one of Russia's few remaining A-50 surveillance planes.
The Tu-22M3 is Russia's long-range missile strike platform that can perform stand-off attacks, launching missiles from Russian airspace well behind the front lines to stay out of range of Ukrainian anti-aircraft fire.
Russia had 55 Tu-22M3 jets and 57 Tu-95s in its fleet at the beginning of the year, according to the 'Military Balance 2025' from the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank.
The Tu-95 joined the Soviet Union air force in the 1950s, and Russia has modified them to launch cruise missiles like the Tu-22.
Military aviation expert Peter Layton said the loss of the bombers, which could carry the heaviest and most powerful cruise missiles, mean Russia will need to rely more on drones for future attacks on Ukraine.
Outside the immediate air war, the attack on the air bases will be a major distraction for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, now a military analyst in Hawaii.
'Putin will direct more resources to internal security after such a domestic security failure,' Schuster said.
'Ukraine was able to deploy dozens of containers with drones to within line of sight of major Russian strategic bases and launch massive air strikes. Can you imagine explaining that one to Putin?'
One of Ukraine's first major wins was the sinking of the cruiser Moskva, the pride of Russia's Black Sea fleet, in the early months of war.
The Moskva was one of the Russian Navy's most important warships and its sinking represented a massive blow to Moscow's military, which at the time was struggling against Ukrainian resistance 50 days into Putin's invasion.
In April, 2022, Ukraine's Operational Command South claimed the Moskva had begun to sink after it was hit by Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles.
Russia, meanwhile said a fire broke out on the guided-missile cruiser, causing munitions aboard to explode, inflicting serious damage to the vessel, and forcing the crew of the warship to be evacuated.
Analysts said its loss struck hard at the heart of the Russian navy as well as national pride, comparable to the US Navy losing a battleship during World War II or an aircraft carrier today.
What followed was a string of naval defeats for Moscow's Black Sea Fleet.
In early 2024, six sea drones, powered by jet skis, felled a Russian guided missile ship, the Ivanovets. Night-time footage released by the Ukrainians showed Russians firing at the drones as they raced toward the Ivanovets, before at least two drones struck the side of the ship, disabling it and causing massive explosions.
Built following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, the 12-mile Kerch bridge was a vital supply line for Moscow's war effort in Ukraine and a personal project for Putin, embodying his objective to bind the peninsula to Russia.
Russia built the bridge at a cost of around $3.7 billion
In July, 2023, Ukrainian security services claimed to have blown up the bridge using an experimental sea drone. The attack caused damage to the road lanes of the bridge, and, according to Russian officials, killed two civilians.
The head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, told CNN at the time that the Kerch attack was a joint operation with the Ukrainian navy.
The bridge is a critical artery for supplying Crimea with both its daily needs and supplies for the military.
A number of high profile Russian military figures have been killed inside the country over the past year. Crucially, Ukraine has never claimed the killings but it is notable that many of those killed played prominent roles in Moscow's .
Last month, Russian deputy mayor and prominent veteran of the war, Zaur Aleksandrovich Gurtsiev, was killed in an explosion in southern Russia. Russian authorities said they were investigating all options into the killing, 'including the organization of a terrorist attack' involving Ukraine.
Gurtsiev had been involved in the Russian attacks on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which destroyed about 90% of residential buildings, according to United Nations estimates.
Gurtsiev had 'introduced his developments in the technology of targeting missiles, which allowed them to increase their accuracy and effectiveness many times over,' according to the 'Time of Heroes' program.
In April, Russian authorities charged a 'Ukrainian special services agent' with terrorism, after he was detained in connection with a car explosion that killed Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik, the deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
And in February Armen Sarkisyan, the founder of a pro-Russian militia group in eastern Ukraine – described by authorities in Kyiv as a 'criminal mastermind' – died following a bombing in central Moscow. The bombing took place in an upmarket residential complex in the capital city, Russian state media outlet TASS reported at the time.
Ukraine has never claimed the killings but it is notable that high-profile figures have been assassinated in Russian territory.