Ukraine's audacious drone attack sends critical message to Russia
We cannot possibly verify Ukrainian claims that the attacks resulted in $7bn (£5.2bn) of damage, but it's clear that "Operation Spider's Web" was, at the very least, a spectacular propaganda coup.
Ukrainians are already comparing it with other notable military successes since Russia's full-scale invasion, including the sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, and the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, both in 2022, as well as a missile attack on Sevastopol harbour the following year.
Judging by details leaked to the media by Ukraine's military intelligence, the SBU, the latest operation is the most elaborate achievement so far.
In an operation said to have taken 18 months to prepare, scores of small drones were smuggled into Russia, stored in special compartments aboard freight trucks, driven to at least four separate locations, thousands of miles apart, and launched remotely towards nearby airbases.
"No intelligence operation in the world has done anything like this before," defence analyst Serhii Kuzan told Ukrainian TV.
"These strategic bombers are capable of launching long-range strikes against us," he said. "There are only 120 of them and we struck 40. That's an incredible figure."
It is hard to assess the damage, but Ukrainian military blogger Oleksandr Kovalenko says that even if the bombers, and command and control aircraft were not destroyed, the impact is enormous.
"The extent of the damage is such that the Russian military-industrial complex, in its current state, is unlikely to be able to restore them in the near future," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
The strategic missile-carrying bombers in question, the Tu-95, Tu-22, and Tu-160 are, he said, no longer in production. Repairing them will be difficult, replacing them impossible.
The loss of the supersonic Tu-160, he said, would be especially keenly felt.
"Today, the Russian Aerospace Forces lost not just two of their rarest aircraft, but truly two unicorns in the herd," he wrote.
Beyond the physical damage, which may or may not be as great as analysts here are assessing, Operation Spider's Web sends another critical message, not just to Russia but also to Ukraine's western allies.
My colleague Svyatoslav Khomenko, writing for the BBC Ukrainian Service website, recalls a recent encounter with a government official in Kyiv.
The official was frustrated.
"The biggest problem," the official told Svyatoslav, "is that the Americans have convinced themselves we've already lost the war. And from that assumption everything else follows."
Ukrainian defence journalist Illia Ponomarenko, posting on X, puts it another way, with a pointed reference to President Volodymyr Zelensky's infamous Oval office encounter with Donald Trump.
"This is what happens when a proud nation under attack doesn't listen to all those: 'Ukraine has only six months left'. 'You have no cards'. 'Just surrender for peace, Russia cannot lose'."
Even more pithy was a tweet from the quarterly Business Ukraine journal, which proudly proclaimed "It turns out Ukraine does have some cards after all. Today Zelensky played the King of Drones."
This, then, is the message Ukrainian delegates carry as they arrive in Istanbul for a fresh round of ceasefire negotiations with representatives from the Kremlin: Ukraine is still in the fight.
The Americans "begin acting as if their role is to negotiate for us the softest possible terms of surrender," the government official told Svyatoslav Khomenko.
"And then they're offended when we don't thank them. But of course we don't – because we don't believe we've been defeated."
Despite Russia's slow, inexorable advance through the battlefields of the Donbas, Ukraine is telling Russia, and the Trump administration, not to dismiss Kyiv's prospects so easily.
Ukraine says more than 40 Russian warplanes hit in massive drone strikes
At least seven dead after two Russian bridges collapse
Silent acts of resistance and fear under Russian occupation in Ukraine
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
16 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Guilty Conscience': Trump's Raw Confession About 'Heaven' Has People Wondering
President Donald Trump surprised his critics on Tuesday by revealing that he's worried about what will happen to him after he dies. 'I want to try and get to heaven if possible,' Trump confessed during a Fox News interview. 'I'm hearing I'm not doing well. I hear I'm really at the bottom of the totem pole.' Trump made the unexpected comments while he spoke about efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Doing so, he said, would save lives and give him a better chance of passing through the Pearly Gates. 'If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons,' he said. Trump met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and this week met with European leaders as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to discuss ending a conflict he once said he could solve in 24 hours. However, he has so far received no commitments from Putin, who launched the war by invading Ukraine in early 2022. But for Trump's critics, it was his sudden concern about a potential afterlife and how he'll spend it that caught their attention. 'Gaslighting' Donald Trump Tries To Bury A Comment; Critics Dig It Right Back Up Critics Burn 'Fitting' Detail Of New White House Trump Painting Trump Attacks Smithsonian For Focus On 'How Bad Slavery Was' And, Boy, The ResponsesSolve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
31 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Exclusive-The US Navy is building a drone fleet to take on China. It's not going well
By David Jeans NEW YORK (Reuters) -During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon's top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly. As officials scrambled to fix a software glitch, another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat's starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water – an incident captured in videos obtained by Reuters. The previously unreported episode, which involved two vessels built by U.S. defense tech rivals Saronic and BlackSea Technologies, is one of a series of recent setbacks in the Pentagon's push to build a fleet of autonomous vessels, according to a dozen people familiar with the program. Weeks earlier, during a separate Navy test, the captain of a support boat was thrown into the water after another autonomous BlackSea vessel it was towing suddenly accelerated, capsizing the support boat, according to four people familiar with the matter. The captain was rescued and declined medical attention. The incident was first reported by Defense Scoop. Both incidents stemmed from a combination of software failures and human error, including breakdowns in communication between onboard systems and external autonomous software, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity to share sensitive information. The Navy, Saronic and BlackSea declined to comment on the incidents. U.S. military leaders, seeing the outsized impact of maritime drones in the Ukraine war, have repeatedly said they need autonomous swarms of aerial and maritime drones to hinder a potential advance by China across the Taiwan Strait. Taiwan itself has begun acquiring its own maritime drones. The drones being developed in Ukraine, which often look like speedboats without seats, and are capable of carrying weapons, explosives and surveillance equipment, are primarily remote-controlled and cost close to $250,000 – making them optimal for kamikaze missions that have effectively neutralized Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The U.S., meanwhile, is aiming to build an autonomous naval fleet that can move in swarms and without human command – a more ambitious task at a higher price point; as much as a few million dollars per speedboat. The recent test failures highlight the challenges facing the Navy's effort to deploy the nascent technologies, said Bryan Clark, an autonomous warfare expert at the Hudson Institute. It will need to adapt its "tactics as it better understands what the systems can do and what they can't do." But the Navy's problems go beyond getting the boats to work: its autonomous maritime drone acquisition unit has also been rocked by the firing of its top admiral, and a top Pentagon official voiced concerns about the program in a candid meeting with Navy brass last month, Reuters found. Since the most recent incident, the Pentagon's Defense Innovation Unit (DIU), which had acquired technology for the tests, has indefinitely paused a contract – valued close to $20 million – with L3Harris, one of the companies providing autonomous software used to control some of the vessels, according to two people familiar with the matter. The Pentagon did not respond to questions about the cause of the accidents or the L3Harris contract being paused, which has not been previously reported. A Pentagon spokesperson said it conducted drone tests as part of a "competitive and iterative approach, between operators and industry." L3Harris declined to comment on the contract and directed questions to the DIU. The DIU declined to comment. "L3Harris stands behind the safety, integrity and capability of our autonomy command-and-control product," said Toby Magsig, who oversees L3Harris' autonomous software products. RISE OF SEA DRONES To accelerate its drone effort, the Pentagon in 2023 launched the $1 billion Replicator program, through which branches like the U.S. Navy and the DIU planned to acquire thousands of aerial and maritime drones, along with the software to control them. The first systems from this program are due to be announced this month. The Navy has committed at least $160 million to BlackSea, which is producing dozens of its Global Autonomous Reconnaissance Craft boats a month, according to procurement records. Saronic, which was recently valued at $4 billion in a funding round backed by Andreessen Horowitz and 8VC, makes the competitive sea drone Corsair, but is yet to announce a major contract. Federal procurement records show the company has generated at least $20 million from prototype agreements. "These systems will play a critical role in the future of naval warfare by extending fleet reach, improving situational awareness, and increasing combat effectiveness," acting chief of naval operations Jim Kilby said during a visit to BlackSea's facility in June. NAVY TURMOIL Since returning to office, President Donald Trump has made fielding swarms of drones a top military priority. Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' passed last month included almost $5 billion for maritime autonomous systems. But, so far, the Navy's approach has faced skepticism under the new administration. In April, the Navy's key drone boat procurement unit – known as Program Executive Office Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) – touted a successful demonstration of the software used to control BlackSea's vessels in a post on LinkedIn, hailing it as "a major step forward in advancing #maritime autonomy." In response, Colin Carrol, then-chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steven Feinberg, suggested the program was duplicating other efforts within the Pentagon. 'I have a feeling that there are changes in this program's future,' he replied to the LinkedIn post. Carrol, who is no longer with the Pentagon, declined to comment further. The PEO USC was recently placed under review, according to four people familiar with the matter, due to a series of setbacks, and could be restructured or shut down. This comes two months after the Navy said it had sacked the unit's leader, Rear Admiral Kevin Smith, due to a loss of confidence in his leadership after the Naval Inspector General substantiated a complaint against him. Reuters was unable to contact Smith. During a meeting last month, Feinberg grilled Navy officials about their autonomous vessel capabilities, including those being fielded by the PEO USC, according to three people briefed on the meeting. Feinberg was unimpressed by some of the capabilities being acquired by the Navy and questioned whether they were cost-effective, the people said. A Pentagon spokesperson said, "we're not going to comment on private internal meetings" and directed questions about PEO USC to the Navy. The Navy declined to comment on the meeting or the acquisition unit being put under review. Spokesperson Timothy Hawkins said the PEO USC stands by its mission, including its role as acquisition authority for the maintenance and modernization of unmanned maritime systems. The turmoil comes as shipbuilders and software providers are angling to secure even larger autonomous maritime projects, such as unmanned submarines and cargo-carrying ships. Last week, the PEO USC started accepting proposals for the Modular Attack Surface Craft, to acquire medium and large vessels capable of carrying containers, surveillance equipment, and conducting strikes. T.X. Hammes, an autonomous weapons expert and Atlantic Council fellow, said the Navy is in uncharted waters, trying to overhaul decades of tradition at high speed. "You've got a system that's used to building big things, taking years to make a decision, and now suddenly you're asking them to move fast," he said.
Fast Company
33 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Russia's drones have created a brand-new form of pollution
The Russian invasion of Ukraine will have long-lasting consequences for all of us. Like the 1939 invasion of Poland introduced the world to 'blitzkrieg'—high-speed tanks and air power quickly jumping enveloping and eliminating enemy lines—this war is the herald of a new military era of relentless unmanned war machines hunting the enemy through air, land, and water. The drones are part of a new, high-speed technological race with a major unintended consequence: endless miles of plastic string pollution. After Russia's wireless first-person view (FPV) drones were routinely thwarted by Ukrainian radio interference weapons, some unknown Russian engineer thought the best way to neutralize these countermeasures was by ditching radio signals for miles-long cables, just like some wire-guided anti-tank missiles use. The method proved successful for Russia. And now Ukranians have copied it, as the frontlines are quickly filling up with white plastic cables that sometimes cover entire fields, forests, and small towns. These plastic spider-webs are invading everything, as the two sides relentlessly launch wave after wave of these kamikaze machines, each of them equipped with spools of fiber-optic cables that directly connect the drones to the pilots that use joysticks and virtual reality goggles to control them. At the beginning, they could barely reach 3 to 6 miles. Today, they're striking targets at distances exceeding 25 miles. You would think that 25 miles of cable would be impossible for a light FPV drone to lift, but the fiber-optics cables are so thin and light that only weigh a few pounds. 'Three months ago, we were testing fiber-optic drones with a range of up to 12 miles. Today, these systems are already capable of hitting enemy targets at distances beyond 25 miles,' Mykhailo Fedorov, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, announced on Telegram at the end of July. 'Strikes at a depth of 25+ mils are becoming the new norm for fiber-optic drones,' he said. Russian videos now show spools extending to 31 miles that weigh less than 8.8 pounds—which makes them suitable for larger drones. You can also order the spools from China, complete with all the necessary electronics. Let's do some math. As of 2025, Ukraine's total FPV drone production capacity has surged to 200,000 units per month from the initial 20,000 units produced monthly in early 2024. Approximately 10% of the total Ukrainian drone output is now fiber-optic guided. The Russian numbers are not as clear. As of July 2025, tens of thousands of units of the wire-guided Prince Vandal drone are produced monthly, according to the official news agency TASS. Another source puts that number at 6,000 units per month. Let's say it's a conservative total of 15,000 drones for both sides. At 25 miles of cable per drone, that's 375,000 miles of plastic cable, enough to circle the Earth's equator 15 times. That's a lot of trash which will have a dramatic effect on agriculture, fauna and flora, and people's lives for years to come. Things will get bad before they get worse Of course, with their immediate survival on the line and with Trump and Putin playing Risk with their homeland, infinite plastic spiderwebs are the last thing that the Ukrainians are thinking about right now. But there is no doubt that, as this technological arms race accelerates, so will the environmental catastrophe for a country that has already been razed to the ground in many places. 'Due to their composition, these cables could persist in the environment for more than 600 years, posing a substantial long-term threat,' warns Leon Moreland, researcher at the Conflict and Environmental Observatory. With the new longer-range systems now being deployed on an industrial scale, the environmental impact is multiplying exponentially. The cables form dangerous networks across trees and clearings that will pose a significant risk of entanglement and death to many species, including threatened birds and bats, for years to come, says Charlie Russell, University of East Anglia researcher who focuses on wars' impact on migratory birds. 'The materials used make them difficult to identify and unlikely to naturally degrade, and they already cover vast swathes of important habitats. Removing them will be difficult but integral to long-term conservation efforts post-conflict.' The risks go beyond wildlife. They're also a danger to vehicles, affecting everything from agricultural machinery to fire trucks fighting forest fires. Additionally, they will complicate future de-mining operations, as they can get tangled in the heavy machinery used to clear minefields. Pollution begets more pollution Beyond the direct and immediate issues caused by endless miles of cabling, they will cause even more problems over time as they slowly degrade. They will release contaminants, Moreland says. Their PMMA core (PolymethylMethacrylate) core can generate microplastics and nanoplastics. These tiny particles can inhibit agricultural crop growth, which is a major problem for a country that is one of the main global producers and exporters of corn and wheat. The plastic will inexorably get into the food chain and reach humans, accumulating in different parts of the body, especially on infants. Burning the wires first isn't a solution, as the cables will release toxic gases like nitric oxide. Their outer coating belongs to the PFAS family, the so-called 'forever chemicals' due to their extreme environmental persistence. 'Along with munitions and firefighting foams, this fiber constitutes another military source of PFAS,' which contaminates soils and waters, Moreland notes. For the Ukrainians, the only silver lining to these noxious cables is that they can be used to trace their pilots: The fiber-optic becomes visible when illuminated by low-angled sunlight, creating clear vectors pointing back to enemy positions. So far, this reportedly led to the elimination of a five-person Russian drone team. But of course, the same can be said about the Ukrainian positions. It's never-ending cycle of destruction that will not stop. It's, in fact, accelerating. 'We are developing a technology that accurately and flawlessly destroys the enemy,' Fedorov says. Ukraine has now codified and approved about 40 samples of unmanned aircraft systems using fiber-optic control channels since the beginning of 2025, while production capacity keeps ramping up. It's also likely that Ukraine companies will start sharing their extensive expertise with the rest of European countries, which are now quickly rearming to face the imperialist thirst of Vladimir Putin after the United States turned its back on them. Other countries will follow, Moreland points out: China is already testing this technology. The success of fiber-optic drones in Ukraine virtually guarantees their proliferation to other conflicts worldwide. Every successful mission adds to the accumulating miles of fiber-optic cable abandoned on the ground. As production scales from thousands to potentially tens of thousands of drones per month, and as ranges extend from 25 to 40+ miles, the plastic spider web grows ever denser. This new type of war pollution—a plastic legacy designed to last centuries—continues expanding with each technological breakthrough. Right now, the solution to this unexpected environmental catastrophe remains as elusive as intercepting the drones themselves, while the invisible threads of modern warfare continue spinning their deadly, permanent web across the battlefields of the future.
