Operation Spiderweb: Satellite images show Russian bombers destroyed in massive Ukrainian drone attack
The impact of Ukraine 's audacious drone attack deep inside Russia over the weekend has been captured in satellite imagery which suggests a number of strategic bombers were severely damaged or outright destroyed.
Carried out on Sunday, 'Operation Spiderweb' was planned out over the course of 18 months and executed by Ukraine's SBU security service. It saw truckloads of drones smuggled thousands of kilometres into Russian territory before they were unleashed close to airbases to destroy as many aircraft as possible, officials in Kyiv said.
In a rare confirmation of such losses, Russia said Ukraine attacked airfields across five regions, causing several aircraft to catch fire. 'The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions, Murmansk and Irkutsk,' Moscow's defence ministry claimed on Sunday.
New satellite images from Capella Space, a satellite company, took a before-and-after view of the airfield located in Irkutsk, a Siberian region.
The images from 2 June, a day after Ukraine's operation, feature the dismantled debris and ashen remains of several aircraft located along the runway of the Belaya military air base or parked in protective revetments nearby.
The latest images are from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites which direct energy beams at the Earth and detect echoes, allowing identification of small topographical details.
Experts have said that the destruction seen in these images confirm Russia suffered the loss of multiple aircraft.
"Based on the debris visible, comparison to recent satellite images and released drone footage from Telegram posted to Twitter, I can see the destruction of several aircraft," said John Ford, a research associate at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
He added that the SAR satellite imagery seen by him purportedly shows the remnants of two destroyed Tu-22 Backfires – long-range, supersonic strategic bombers that have been used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine.
The SAR images and the footage of the strikes posted on social media also indicated that four strategic Tu-95 heavy bombers had been destroyed or severely damaged, Mr Ford added.
In Kyiv, Ukraine's SBU security agency said that the operation resulted in the loss of a total of 41 Russian warplanes.
Explosive-laden drones were hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds, which were then loaded onto trucks and driven to the perimeter of the air bases, according to a Ukrainian security official.
The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely-activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said.
The Independent has not verified the claims.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack 'absolutely brilliant', lauding the operation which hit Russian targets up to 4,300km (2,670 miles) from the war's frontline. The preliminary assessment from the Ukrainian military confirmed damages to 12 additional aircraft after the operation over the weekend.
"After processing additional information from various sources and verifying it ... we report that the total (Russian) losses amounted to 41 military aircraft, including strategic bombers and other types of combat aircraft," the SBU said in an update.
It added that the damage amounted to $7bn, and 34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia's main airfields were hit.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Sky News
10 minutes ago
- Sky News
What if Russia attacked the UK? Submit your questions for team behind The Wargame podcast
What would happen if Russia attacked the UK? Our new podcast The Wargame pits a fictional British government against an imagined Kremlin, taking you to the heart of the crisis. To coincide with the launch we're holding a Q&A with the team behind the podcast - send us your question below.
Reuters
37 minutes ago
- Reuters
Russia asks UN agency to help solve question of US fuel at Ukraine nuclear plant
MOSCOW, June 6 (Reuters) - Russia asked the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Friday to mediate between Moscow and Washington to resolve the question of what to do with U.S. nuclear fuel stored at a Ukrainian power plant controlled by Russian forces. Russia wants to restart the idled Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, which lies near one of the front lines of the war in Ukraine and once generated a fifth of Ukraine's electricity. The fuel question is one of numerous issues standing in the way. Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Reuters this week that restarting it was currently impossible because of the lack of a stable power supply and water for cooling. Russian nuclear energy chief Alexei Likhachev said after meeting Grossi on Friday that Russia was willing either to use the fuel, supplied by U.S. company Westinghouse, or to remove it entirely and return it to the United States. Westinghouse and U.S. energy officials had previously raised intellectual property concerns with Russia in connection with the fuel issue, he said in televised comments. State news agency RIA quoted Grossi as saying the IAEA was willing to mediate. Russia and Ukraine have each accused the other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, Europe's largest, raising the risk of a grave accident. Likhachev said Russia had prepared a "comprehensive plan" for the phased commissioning of the plant but it could only be implemented if all military threats were removed. The facility was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly its troops entered Ukraine at the start of the war. It has six reactors, the last of which stopped generating electricity in September 2022.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Russia responds to Trump-Musk feud with jokes, jibes and job offers
June 6 (Reuters) - The feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk provoked chatter, mockery and amusement among the ruling class in Moscow, where one senior official joked about hosting peace talks and another said Musk should bring his businesses to Russia. "Elon, don't be upset!" nationalist senator Dmitry Rogozin, who once ran Russia's space programme, wrote on Musk's X social media site. "If you encounter insurmountable problems in the U.S., come to us. Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity." Dmitry Medvedev, a senior security official and former president, posted: "We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don't fight, guys!" The public feud between the U.S. president and the world's richest man was an easy target for Russian politicians who have a history of gloating over perceived turmoil in Washington. Margarita Simonyan, one of Russia's most powerful state media executives, mocked it as an example of "modern U.S. political culture" -- "Sort of like the English Industrial Revolution. Only in reverse." Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, who has in the past tried to interest Musk in cooperating with Russia on flights to Mars, asked on X: "Why can't we all just get along?" He then asked Grok, X's AI chatbot, how Musk and Trump could reconcile. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the clash, said it was an internal matter for the U.S., though he was confident that Trump would handle it. "Presidents handle a huge number of different things at the same time, some more and some less important," Peskov said. Others saw clear benefit for Russia from the feud distracting Washington. "We can just be glad that they won't have time for us," said Konstantin Malofeyev, a hardline nationalist tycoon, who said it was now "the best time to strike back" against Ukraine.
