Russia's 'Pearl Harbor': What to know Ukraine's audacious drone strike

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2 days ago

WASHINGTON − Ukraine destroyed dozens of enemy bombers using a horde of drones smuggled deep into Russia in a stunning attack Russian war bloggers are calling Moscow's Pearl Harbor. It was the most damaging Ukrainian attack on Russia in the three years since Moscow invaded.
Ukrainian intelligence said the coordinated strikes on June 1 took a $7 billion toll on Russia's military and demolished more than a third of Moscow's strategic cruise missile carriers, including planes cabable of carrying nuclear warheads.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the massive attack, which he said used 117 drones, his counntry's "longest-range operation."
More: War in Ukraine rages on as Putin's 3-day ceasefire nears: updates in maps
"It had an absolutely brilliant outcome," Zelenskyy said on Telegram. "Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so."
Oksana Markarova, Kyiv's ambassador to the U.S. called the attack a "very successful defensive operation in Russia against Russian aircraft that, on a daily basis, bomb our hospitals and schools and kill our kids."
Speaking at an AI event in Washington, Markarova said it was "the best example of how innovation can and should work in defense."
With Ukraine set to meet Russia for U.S.-brokered peace talks the next day and amid aggressive Russian advances on the battlefield, the ambitious attack showed neither side is counting on a breakthrough in negotiations.
"We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even tougher," Russian war blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on Telegram, comparing the Ukrainian strike to the 1941 Japanese raid on a US base in Hawaii.
'It is impossible to restore these losses,' Rybar, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, said.
The operation – codenamed "Spider's Web" – was characteristic of the style of warfare Ukraine has made its brand as it attempts to undercut Russia's larger military – flooding the zone with cheap, deadly drones.
But the scope of this attack set a new precedent. The drones, strapped with explosives, were hidden inside the roofs of wooden sheds, which were dropped off by trucks at the outer edge of Russian military bases, a Ukrainian security official told Reuters.
The roofs then opened by remote control, unleashing the drones to swarm the military bases.
Ukraine's intelligence service said 41 Russian aircraft were hit at four air bases stretching from the Finnish border to Siberia. One targeted base, in the Irkutsk region, lies more than 2,600 miles from the frontlines, making it the farthest target Ukraine has hit during the conflict.
Russia's defense ministry acknowledged in Sunday Telegram messages that drones launched "from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire."
The operation came a day after Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine using 472 drones and seven missiles, according to Ukraine's air force – the most drones launched in one operation throughout the conflict.
Separately on Sunday, Ukraine struck two highway bridges in Russian regions close to its borders, killing seven people and injuring 69. One bridge collapsed on a train carrying nearly 400 passengers to Moscow, according to Russian investigators.
Three of the missiles and 372 drones were downed, the air force said.
Ukraine launched the operation a day before Ukraine and Russia will meet for U.S.-mediated negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey, to end the grinding conflict.
President Donald Trump has pressed both sides for a ceasefire. Earlier this year, his focus was trained on Ukraine, sparking tension with Zelensky that exploded into public view during a combative Oval Office meeting in late February.
But in recent weeks, Trump has grown more frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin's dug-in position in negotiations.
In his starkest criticism of Putin to date, Trump said Putin had "gone absolutely CRAZY" after Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles into Ukrainian cities last weekend that killed a dozen people.
"I've always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!" Trump wrote in a May 25 Truth Social.
Trump said days later in the Oval Office that he was "very disappointed" that "people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Russia's 'Pearl Harbor': How Ukraine pulled secret drone attack