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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Latest On Russian Aircraft Loss Assessments From Ukrainian Drone Strikes
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite imagery that TWZ has obtained from U.S.-based ICEYE US further points to multiple Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers having been damaged or destroyed at Belaya Air Base. Situated in Russia's eastern Irkutsk region, Belaya was one of five bases that Ukraine targeted in unprecedented covert drone attacks over the weekend. Exactly how many of Russia's aircraft were struck remains unconfirmed, and readers can first get up to speed on what is known about the operation and its aftermath in our past reporting here. The image of Belaya that ICEYE US provided to TWZ was taken on June 1, the day of the Ukrainian drone attacks, and shows what the firm has assessed to be at least four Tu-95s likely damaged or destroyed at that base, as seen below. However, the resolution of the image and the nature of SAR, which does not show the same kinds of details that would be available in visual spectrum imagery, do make it difficult to definitively determine the state of any of the aircraft. Ukrainian authorities claim to have hit 41 aircraft, in total, including Tu-95 Bear, Tu-22M Backfire, and Tu-160 Blackjack bombers, as well as A-50 Mainstay airborne early warning and control aircraft, and other types. In addition to Belaya, Russia's Dyagilevo, Ivanovo, Olenya, and Ukrainka air bases were also said to have been targeted. Because I've not seen it anywhere yet…Here's a map I made of the 4 Russian air bases that Ukraine hit with drone attacks just now (red stars)Look how deeply they penetrate into Russian territory. Slava Ukraini. — Mike Galsworthy (@mikegalsworthy) June 1, 2025 The New York Times separately reported today that as many as 20 planes at Belaya and Olenya, at least, were struck, citing unnamed American and European security officials. Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, previously said that 'at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed.' Independent verification of these claims remains difficult and they continue to be largely speculative. ICEYE's specific assessments regarding Belaya do align with what can be seen in other SAR imagery of that particular base now circulating online from Capella Space and Umbra Space. Commercial satellite providers that offer SAR imaging capability have been a go-to since Ukraine launched its drone attacks due to heavy cloud cover over the targeted bases in Russia. SAR provides a valuable all-weather imaging option that can also 'see' through smoke, dust, and other obscurants. The revetted parking positions. — Chris Biggers (@CSBiggers) June 2, 2025 Satellite imagery shows Ukraine attack destroyed and damaged Russian bombers Drone operation was one of Ukraine's most damaging of war so farhttps:// via @Reuters — Nino Brodin (@Orgetorix) June 3, 2025 'What we're seeing across multiple theaters reinforces why persistent, all-weather monitoring capabilities are essential for understanding rapidly evolving situations,' a spokesperson for ICEYE US told TWZ. 'Commercial SAR technology provides decision-makers with continuous situational awareness that doesn't depend on weather conditions or time of day—capabilities that are increasingly critical as conflicts become more dynamic and distributed.' 'The ability to detect changes in infrastructure, movement patterns, and ground conditions through any weather gives commanders and analysts the persistent vigilance they need to make informed decisions,' they added. 'This is exactly why we've focused on delivering commercial capabilities that complement national systems—providing redundancy and additional perspective when traditional sensors might be limited.' At the same time, as TWZ has previously noted, SAR imagery, of the commercial variety in particular, has limitations for evaluating the kinds of damage that are of interest in the wake of Ukraine's drone attacks. Pairing SAR images with other intelligence-related products can help bridge the certainty gap. When it comes to Belaya, videos taken at ground level had previously emerged online showing smoke rising from the base following the Ukrainain attacks, which lends further credence to what is seen in the SAR imagery. Footage of a Ukrainian FPV strike drone flying towards Russia's Belaya Airbase, already heavily base, home to a number of bombers, was hit this afternoon. — OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 1, 2025 Belaya, June 1, 2025, operation Spiderweb, another footage — IgorGirkin (@GirkinGirkin) June 2, 2025 Video footage of the drone attacks on Olenya Air Base, located in far northwestern Russia near the Barents Sea, including views from the cameras on first-person-view (FPV) type kamikaze drones, had also previously appeared online. Olenya looks to have been one of the hardest hit bases, with the dramatic drone videos showing Tu-95 bombers, as well as an An-12 Cub cargo plane, being targeted. A satellite image of Olenya taken today from Planet Labs may show three Tu-95s and the An-12 damaged and/or destroyed, but it is too low-resolution to be conclusive. Olenya/Olenegorsk/Vysokiy (part one).Smoking Tu-95: 68.139848, 33.444469Burning Tu-95: 68.143294, 33.448041Burning Tu-95: 68.144249, 33.448926Destroyed Tu-95: 68.145419, 33.449928Source: — Evergreen Intel (@ 2025-06-02T14:22:59.735Z Olenya/Olenegorsk/Vysokiy (part two).Burning An-12: 68.146555, 33.450901Destroyed Tu-95MS from part 3 at 68.145419, 33.449928 identified as RF-94257 '22 Red' — Evergreen Intel (@ 2025-06-02T14:24:07.929Z Satellite images of Olenya Airbase as of June 3, 09:55 UTCThe airbase housed 1 Tu-160 (Blackjack), 1 Il-76 (Candid), 3 An-12 (Cub) and 28 Tu-22M3 (Backfire-C).After the Ukrainian special operation, 4 completely destroyed planes can be seen: 3 Tu-95MS (Bear-H) and 1 An-12… — AviVector (@avivector) June 3, 2025 A high-resolution satellite image of Dyagilevo Air Base from Planet Labs taken yesterday, which TWZ has reviewed, shows no obvious signs of damage to any aircraft there. It is worth noting that damage from shrapnel, which can be significant to relatively thin-skinned aircraft, would not be visible even in higher-resolution imagery. Satellite images of Dyagilevo Airbase as of June 2, 8:55 UTCThe airbase housed 3 Tu-95MS (Bear-H), 5 Tu-22M3 (Backfire-C), 14 Il-78M or Il-76MD (Midas or Candid) and 2 Su-30SM (Flanker-C).There was no serious damage after the Ukrainian special operation. In the right… — AviVector (@avivector) June 2, 2025 Clear satellite imagery that might definitely show damage to aircraft at Ivanovo and Ukrainka has yet to emerge. There are also unconfirmed reports today that the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, which carried out the drone attacks, has additional unreleased video footage showing two A-50s and multiple Tu-22Ms being struck at unspecified bases. My frequent co-writer Michael Weiss also confirms the content of the video: — Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) June 3, 2025 As TWZ has noted in our past reporting on the Ukrainian drone attacks, any Russian losses of Tu-95, Tu-22M, to Tu-160 bombers, as well as A-50s, carry significant weight. None of these aircraft can be repaired and/or replaced quickly, if at all. Russian authorities have stated plans in the past to buy 50 ostensibly new-production Tu-160M2 aircraft with various upgrades. As of last year, however, only three appeared to have been built, none of which had entered operational service. TWZ has noted in the past that the Tu-160M2 plan could include refurbished existing jets and ones built using unfinished airframes. Russia would not have had lose very many bombers, as well as A-50s, to have substantial impacts with regard to operations in Ukraine and well beyond. As we have previously written: 'Even taking one or two bombers out of operation will impact the Russian Aerospace Forces. The bomber triad has played a key role in launching the barrages of cruise missiles that have regularly struck targets across Ukraine.' 'At the same time, these aircraft are a integral part of Russia's nuclear deterrent. This makes them a matter of great prestige, but also a critical element in Russia's ability to launch nuclear or conventional airstrikes against targets outside of Ukraine. These aircraft are also regularly used for long-range patrols over Europe and Asia, also venturing as far as the coast of Alaska, and for irregular visits to strategic allies.' 'Wiping out a significant portion of one prong of the nuclear triad — the most flexible part of it — has an impact on the credibility of Russia's overall deterrent. It's also worth noting that Moscow has repeatedly said that attacks on strategic targets would constitute a red line for them, although, strategic bombers and critical locales have been attacked on numerous occasions in the past, too. None of these strikes have been as widespread and possibly successful as this operation though. Regardless, even if a handful of bombers met their demise, it's a blow to Russia's nuclear deterrent posture.' Regardless of the full scale and scope the resulting damage, Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian air bases far from the front lines has already had already clear propaganda and morale-boosting benefits. There is emerging evidence of second-order impacts in Russia, including disruptions due to the implementation of new protocols for inspecting trucks and other security measures, as well. Russia has now started a truck phobia, massive traffic jams have gripped the Irkutsk region, every truck is being checkedSource: — Oriannalyla (@Lyla_lilas) June 2, 2025 А что случилось.По всей России фуры стоят…Может учения какие? — Друг человека (@boris0630) June 3, 2025 As more and better satellite imagery continues to emerge, along with other verifiable visuals and other details, the full extent of Ukraine's mass drone attacks on Russian bases will come more and more into view. Howard Altman contributed to this story. Contact the author: joe@
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Mass Drone Attack On Exposed Russian Bombers Puts Spotlight On Hardened Aircraft Shelter Debate
New details continue to emerge about Ukraine's unprecedented covert drone attacks on multiple Russian air bases, but the full scale and scope of the resulting losses remain unclear. It is the latest global event to put a spotlight on an already fierce debate about whether the U.S. military should be investing in more hardened aircraft shelters and other new fortified infrastructure at bases abroad and at home, something TWZ has been following closely. What we just saw in Russia is a nightmare scenario that we have already been sounding the alarm on for years now, which broadly underscores the growing threats posed by drones. Readers can first get up to speed on what is known about the attacks, which were focused on trying to neutralize Russian strategic bombers that are regularly used to conduct cruise missile attacks on Ukraine, in our latest reporting here. Authorities in Ukraine say they attacked five bases with a total of 117 small and relatively short-range first-person-view (FPV) type kamikaze drones, destroying or at least damaging 41 aircraft. Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, has also said that 'at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed.' These claims have yet to be independently verified and they should be taken as speculative at this time. The russian terrorist state no longer has the ability to produce Tu-95s or any kind of strategic bomber. This is a tremendous victory for Ukraine. — Michael MacKay (@mhmck) June 1, 2025 The drones were launched from container-like enclosures built to look like small sheds or tiny homes on tractor-trailer trucks. Questions remain about exactly how they were guided to their targets, but at least some of them were human-in-the-loop guided by operators using first-person-view 'goggles' or tablet-like devices. 5/5. After launching, the trailers self-destructed to avoid detection or recovery (see photos). — Roman Sheremeta (@rshereme) June 2, 2025 From the imagery that has already emerged, a key aspect of the Ukrainian drone attacks was that the Russian planes that were targeted were parked out in the open. The fact that aircraft sitting on open flightlines are especially vulnerable, including to uncrewed aerial threats, is not new. 'One day last week, I had two small UASs that were interfering with operations… At one base, the gate guard watched one fly over the top of the gate check, tracked it while it flew over the flight line for a little while, and then flew back out and left,' now-retired Air Force Gen. James 'Mike' Holmes, then head of Air Combat Command (ACC), said in 2017, now nearly a decade ago. 'Imagine a world where somebody flies a couple hundred of those and flies one down the intake of my F-22s with just a small weapon on it.' At that time, TWZ noted that it would be easier for an adversary to just attack parked planes in the open, offering a way to knock out large numbers of aircraft before they can even get airborne. Since then, we have already had multiple opportunities to re-highlight the ever-growing risk of something like this occurring to America's armed forces, including scenarios involving more localized attacks on bases far from active war zones by lower-end weaponized commercial drones. The Russian military has been acutely aware of drone threats to air bases even before the all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A mass drone attack on Russia's Khmeimim Air Base outpost in Syria in 2017 was a watershed moment that TWZ highlighted at the time as a sign of things to come. Regular drone attacks on Khmeimim in the late 2010s also prompted the construction of new hardened aircraft shelters there. Last year, Russia's Minister of Defense Andrey Belousov said that 'a schedule for airfields has already been drawn up and that shelters will definitely be built' in response to Ukrainian drone and missile attacks, according to independent Russian journalist Alexander Kots. The construction of new aircraft shelters, hardened and unhardened, had already been visible in satellite imagery of a growing number of air bases in Russia since late 2023. However, from what has been observed to date, the focus has been on better protecting tactical jets at bases closer to Ukraine. Just recently, Belousov was shown a model of a hangar with a Tu-160 Blackjack bomber inside as part of a presentation on new developments relating to prefabricated and modular structures for various military purposes. Whether or not the hangar model reflects an active project, or is a proposal or notional concept of some kind, is unclear. Tu-160s were among the aircraft types Ukraine explicitly targeted with its covert drone attacks this weekend. Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov was shown a model of a hangar for Tu-160 strategic bombers during a visit last — Rob Lee (@RALee85) June 2, 2025 Russia's construction of new aircraft shelters is part of an expanding global trend that has also been observed in China, North Korea, and elsewhere. Hardened Aircraft Shelters of J-10 Fighters — Húrin (@Hurin92) September 8, 2023 Geolocation: 39.4069444, 125.8983333Sunchon AB, DPRK (North Korea)10/27/23 Sentinel-2 L2A pass shows paving and shelters (16 total) completed. Sunchon is home to the KPAAF 57th Air Regiment (MiG-29s).@GeoConfirmedhttps:// — Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555) December 1, 2023 Satellite imagery of Nasosnaya Air Base – Republic Of Azerbaijan Construction of hangars for JF-17 fighter jets, which began in early 2024, is now in its final stages. The base will soon be ready to host a full squadron of 16 aircraft. — آریان || Āryān (@BasedQizilbash) May 28, 2025 The U.S. military does have hardened aircraft shelters are various bases, but has made very limited investments in building more since the end of the Cold War. Calls for new shelters, hardened or otherwise, have been pointedly absent from U.S. military planning in recent years, at least publicly. Some American officials have actively pushed back on the idea, often citing the cost of building new hardened infrastructure, which is funding that could be applied elsewhere. The U.S. Air Force, for instance, has been more focused on active defenses, such as surface-to-air missile systems, and expanding the number of operating locations that forces could be dispersed to, if necessary. 'So, we will have the need for bases, the main operating bases from which we operate,' Air Force Gen. Kevin Schneider, head of Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), said at the Air & Space Forces Association's (AFA) 2025 Warfare Symposium in March. 'The challenge becomes, at some point, we will need to move to austere locations. We will need to disaggregate the force. We will need to operate out of other locations, again, one for survivability, and two, again, to provide response options.' Those are requirements that 'cost money' and force the Air Force to 'make internal trades,' such as 'do we put that dollar towards, you know, fixing the infrastructure at Kadena [Air Base in Japan] or do we put that dollar towards restoring an airfield at Tinian,' Schneider added. There is growing criticism that U.S. forces are being left increasingly vulnerable, including to drone attacks, by a lack of investment in hardened aircraft shelters and other new fortified facilities. A recent deployment of six of the U.S. Air Force's 19 prized B-2 stealth bombers to the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, which wrapped up earlier this month, had offered a new datapoint in the shelter debate. Diego Garcia only has four specially designed B-2 shelters open, which are not hardened in any way, and the bombers were seen parked out in the open while on the island. More recently, a detachment of F-15E Strike Eagles arrived on the island to help provide force protection to other assets still there. 'While 'active defenses' such as air and missile defense systems are an important part of base and force protection, their high cost and limited numbers mean the U.S. will not be able to deploy enough of them to fully protect our bases,' a group of 13 Republican members of Congress had written in an open letter to the heads of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy in May 2024. 'In order to complement active defenses and strengthen our bases, we must invest in 'passive defenses,' like hardened aircraft shelters and underground bunkers, dispersal of forces across both within a base and across multiple bases, redundant logistical facilities, and rapid runway repair capabilities.' 'While hardened aircraft shelters do not provide complete protection from missile attacks, they do offer significantly more protection against submunitions than expedient shelters (relocatable steel shelters). They would also force China to use more force to destroy each aircraft, thereby increasing the resources required to attack our forces and, in turn, the survivability of our valuable air assets,' they added. 'Constructing hardened shelters for all our air assets may not be economically feasible or tactically sensible, but the fact that the number of such shelters on U.S. bases in the region has barely changed over a decade is deeply troubling.' In January, the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington, D.C., released a report that underscores the points made above about the benefits that new hardened aircraft shelters offer in terms of reducing vulnerability and increasing the resources an enemy would have to expend. The authors of the Hudson report assessed that 10 missiles, each with a warhead capable of scattering cluster munitions across areas 450 feet in diameter, could be enough to neutralize all aircraft parked in the open and critical fuel storage facilities at key airbases like Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni in Japan, Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, or Langley Air Force Base in Virginia. The general points made here about the particular danger of submunitions from cluster weapons could also apply to drones with similarly sized warheads like the ones Ukraine just used in its attacks on Russia's air bases. Even fully-enclosed, but unhardened shelters could provide a modicum of additional defense against these kinds of threats. Last year, officials at two U.S. air bases – Langley Air Force Base in Virginia and Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina – expressed interest in the possibility of adding nets or other similar physical defensive measures to existing open-ended sunshade-type shelters to help protect against attacks by smaller drones. It's unclear whether there has been any movement since on actual implementation. Nets are among the drone defenses currently used on both sides of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Waves of still-mysterious drone incursions over Langley Air Force Base in December 2023, which TWZ was the first to report on, remain a particular focal point for broader calls from Congress and elsewhere to better protect U.S. military facilities against uncrewed aerial threats. What happened at Langley is just one of a still-growing number of worrisome drone incidents over and around U.S. military facilities, training ranges, and warships off the coast of the United States, as well as critical civilian infrastructure, in the past decade or so, many of which we have reported first. Overseas bases well outside of established conflict zones that host American forces have been the site of concerning drone overflights in recent years, as well. There was also a flurry of reported drone sightings last year over New Jersey and other parts of the United States last year, many of which quickly turned out to be spurious. However, the surge in public attention underscored a real threat, as Ukraine has now demonstrated in dramatic fashion. While Ukraine says its covert drone attacks on Russia took more than a year to plan, prepare for, and stage, they also underscore how the basic barriers to entry for carrying out drone attacks, especially ones involving weaponized commercial designs, have long been low in terms of cost and technical aptitude. The operation notably leveraged ArduPilot, described as an 'open source autopilot system' that is freely available online. Of course open source software has been used in war before, but seeing ArduPilot Mission Planner being used to blow up Russian strategic bombers is still wild. — John Wiseman (@ 2025-06-01T15:55:48.877Z Additional footage shows another FPV drone overflying the airfield; multiple Tupolev Tu-95 bombers are seen aflame. — Jimmy Rushton (@JimmySecUK) June 1, 2025 18 years after @Jrdmnz @jason4short and I created ArduPilot, here it is destroying large parts of the Russian air force. Crazy — Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) June 1, 2025 Drone threats are only to expand and accelerate in terms of sophistication, thanks in large part to advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, as time goes on. Uncrewed aerial systems with rapidly improving autonomous navigation and targeting capabilities that do not require a human in the loop present particularly serious threats. Without the need for an active link to a human operator, those drones are immune to jamming and do not pump out radio emissions that can help provide early warning to defenders. They are also not limited in range to keep a connection with their controllers. Improving capabilities to autonomously find and prosecute targets are already emerging on one-way-attack drones, and this is something that can be expected to proliferate, as well. Autonomous drones that can target objects dynamic targeting without having to rely just on a fixed set of coordinates via satellite navigation like GPS, another signal that can be disrupted, will only make drone threats more complex and vastly harder to counter overall. TWZ has explored all of this in great detail in this past feature. Swarming is another area that will make lower-end drones so much harder to defeat. Working cooperatively as an integrated team at computer speeds allows drones to operate and react with extreme efficiency beyond the pace of the enemy's decision cycle. This, along with sheer mass and the resilience that goes with that, can quickly overwhelm defenses. 'In general, the technology to field systems has far outpaced the technology to defeat those systems,' Rear Adm. Paul Spedero, Vice Director for Operations, J3, Joint Chiefs of Staff, told members of the House Oversight Committee at a hearing on drone threats in April. 'It's a much wider, broader, deeper market for drone application, for commercial and recreational purposes, so hence that technology has evolved very quickly from radio control drones to now fully autonomous drones that may or may not even rely on reception of a GPS signal, which would make it very challenging to intercept.' Ukraine's covert drone attacks on Russia also underscore that these are increasingly threats unbounded by basic geography. An adversary could launch uncrewed aerial attackers from 1,000 miles away or from an area right next to the target, or anywhere in between. There are many drone types that can address those missions needs, and affordably so. Those drones could be launched from the ground, from ships at sea, and/or from aerial platforms, including other lower-end drones. Complex attacks involving different tiers of threats approaching from multiple vectors at once only add to the complications for defending forces. Ukrainian "Dovbush" UAV carrying and releasing two FPV drones during "Dovbush" UAV is reportedly capable of carrying up to six FPV drones at the same — Status-6 (Military & Conflict News) (BlueSky too) (@Archer83Able) November 19, 2024 Despite all this, America's armed forces have also continued to lag in the fielding of counter-drone defenses for forces down-range, as well as bases and other assets in and around the homeland. Domestically, an often convoluted array of legal, regulatory, and other factors have presented challenges. On the sidelines of a U.S. military counter-drone experiment called Falcon Peak 2025 in October 2024, TWZ and other outlets were notably told that lasers, microwaves, surface-to-air missiles, and guns were all off the table as options for neutralizing drones within the United States, at least at the time. For over a decade I have outlined the exact scenario as we just saw in Russia. It could happen in the U.S. tomorrow. This was a pivotal event. U.S. military and political leadership cannot live in partial denial of this threat anymore. Our most prized aircraft are sitting ducks. — Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 1, 2025 The biggest challenge with this issue is education. Many just don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of the UAS threat, there are many layers and nuances, emerging technologies. There are high up people in the military that don't even really understand these basics. Then… — Tyler Rogoway (@Aviation_Intel) June 1, 2025 The U.S. military does continue to push for enhancements to the authorities it has now to protect its bases and other assets domestically against drone threats. As part of a new Pentagon-wide counter-drone strategy rolled out last year, U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has a 'synchronizer role' that includes making sure commanders know what they are allowed to do now if drones appear around their facilities. Ukraine's drone attacks on Russian air bases this past weekend can only add to the already intense debate over investments in hardened aircraft shelters and other fortified infrastructure, as well as fuel calls for new counter-drone defenses, in general. The stark reality of what Ukrainian intelligence services have now demonstrated makes clear that uncrewed aerial threats, including to key assets deep inside a country's national territory, are well past the point of something that can be ignored. Contact the author: joe@
Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Operation Spiderweb: How Ukraine's Daring Top Secret Drone Assault Unfolded
As few as five people knew about Ukraine's audacious plans to attack thousands of miles into Russian territory as they were first formulated, suggested Ivan Stupak, a former officer in Ukraine's SBU security service. More than a year and a half later, Kyiv succeeded in carrying out what could be its most dramatic, highly coordinated drone assaults on Russia of the war. Ukraine on Sunday hit 41 of Russia's expensive, hard-to-replace warplanes in a meticulously timed operation across three different time zones, thousands of miles away from Ukrainian soil, officials said. Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Kyiv's national security and defense council, said on Monday that 13 Russian aircraft had been "destroyed." The drones were smuggled across the border, placed in wooden containers with removable roofs fixed on trucks. "At the right moment," the SBU said, "the roofs of the houses were remotely opened." The drones zipped away toward their targets, the agency said, homing in on Russia's nuclear-capable bombers and at least one of Moscow's A-50 spy planes. Russia is thought to have just a handful of these surveillance aircraft left. The drones left roughly $7 billion in damage in their wake, hitting more than a third of Moscow's strategic cruise missile carriers, Kyiv said. Russia called the operation a "terrorist attack." To deliver this hefty bill to Moscow in the operation known as "Spiderweb," information was tightly guarded. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, personally oversaw the operation, preparations shepherded by SBU chief, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk. "To pull off a complex special operation, security must be very strict," said Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Dutch research organization, TNO. "Not just within your own ranks, but especially when communicating about it with others," he told Newsweek. "This must be measured against a 'need to know', both militarily and politically, but the less people know about it, the better, as chances of leaks grow exponentially with every party that is informed." Kyiv has publicly admitted to attacking four Russian airfields — the Olenya airbase in the Murmansk region of northwestern Russia, the Ivanovo airbase northeast of Moscow, Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region, and Belaya, a military facility 2,500 miles from Ukraine in Siberia. Russia, in a statement, said Ukraine had attacked airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo and Ryazan, as well as a base in the far eastern Amur region, bordering China. A spokesperson for the SBU declined to comment when approached about strikes on the Ukrainka air base, a long-range aviation hub in Amur. Amur Regional Governor Vasily Orlov, said part of a truck had "caught fire" close to the village of Seryshevo, but denied the Ukrainka air base was targeted by drones. The Ukrainka base sits just outside of Seryshevo. Each of the 117 drones used to attack Russia's air bases on Sunday had its own operator, Zelensky said. All those who helped Kyiv execute the Spiderweb operation were pulled out of Russia before the drones flew, the president added. The main base in Russian territory where the operation was masterminded was "directly next to" an FSB regional headquarters, Zelensky added. Russia's FSB domestic security agency is the main descendent of the Soviet-era KGB. Russia's government said "some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained." The drone strikes came on the eve of fresh rounds of face-to-face talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey. Initial discussions last month produced the largest prisoner swap of the war, but little shuffling toward a peace deal that U.S President Donald Trump vowed to broker. The strikes on Russia help Ukraine "negotiate from a position of strength," Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek on Monday. The White House was not told in advance of the drones zooming toward the airfields, CBS News reported, citing anonymous administration officials. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon and State Department via email. Moscow had upped the intensity of its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, drawing sharp rebuke from Trump, who is disinclined to overly criticize the Kremlin. Ukraine, meanwhile, has grappled with a chronic shortage of air defense systems, and the interceptor missiles they fire to shield key sites and the country's population. Ukraine's air force said on Monday Russia had launched overnight strikes on several Ukrainian regions, including the Chernihiv region northeast of Kyiv, with 80 drones, three hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and a cruise missile. A total of 52 drones were shot down or knocked off course by electronic warfare, the air force said. Ukraine is anticipating a potent Russian response to the drone strikes on its airfields, Stupak told Newsweek, suggesting Moscow could opt to launch one of its experimental Oreshnik missiles. Russia fired an Oreshnik missile for the first time at Ukraine in November 2024, striking the central city of Dnipro. Ukrainian authorities initially reported Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Moscow described the missile as a hypersonic, intermediate-range weapon. The Pentagon said at the time the Oreshnik, or "hazel tree," was based on the design of Moscow's RS-26 Rubezh ICBM, and the U.S. was notified "briefly before the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels." 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Newsweek
3 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Operation Spiderweb: How Ukraine's Daring Top Secret Drone Assault Unfolded
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. As few as five people knew about Ukraine's audacious plans to attack thousands of miles into Russian territory as they were first formulated, suggested Ivan Stupak, a former officer in Ukraine's SBU security service. More than a year and a half later, Kyiv succeeded in carrying out what could be its most dramatic, highly coordinated drone assaults on Russia of the war. Ukraine on Sunday hit 41 of Russia's expensive, hard-to-replace warplanes in a meticulously timed operation across three different time zones, thousands of miles away from Ukrainian soil, officials said. Andriy Kovalenko, an official with Kyiv's national security and defense council, said on Monday that 13 Russian aircraft had been "destroyed." The drones were smuggled across the border, placed in wooden containers with removable roofs fixed on trucks. A Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bomber strikes Islamic State targets in Syria on November 26, 2017. A Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bomber strikes Islamic State targets in Syria on November 26, 2017. AP Photo/ Russian Defense Ministry Press Service "At the right moment," the SBU said, "the roofs of the houses were remotely opened." The drones zipped away toward their targets, the agency said, homing in on Russia's nuclear-capable bombers and at least one of Moscow's A-50 spy planes. Russia is thought to have just a handful of these surveillance aircraft left. The drones left roughly $7 billion in damage in their wake, hitting more than a third of Moscow's strategic cruise missile carriers, Kyiv said. Russia called the operation a "terrorist attack." To deliver this hefty bill to Moscow in the operation known as "Spiderweb," information was tightly guarded. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, personally oversaw the operation, preparations shepherded by SBU chief, Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk. "To pull off a complex special operation, security must be very strict," said Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst with the Dutch research organization, TNO. "Not just within your own ranks, but especially when communicating about it with others," he told Newsweek. "This must be measured against a 'need to know', both militarily and politically, but the less people know about it, the better, as chances of leaks grow exponentially with every party that is informed." Kyiv has publicly admitted to attacking four Russian airfields — the Olenya airbase in the Murmansk region of northwestern Russia, the Ivanovo airbase northeast of Moscow, Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region, and Belaya, a military facility 2,500 miles from Ukraine in Siberia. Russia, in a statement, said Ukraine had attacked airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo and Ryazan, as well as a base in the far eastern Amur region, bordering China. A spokesperson for the SBU declined to comment when approached about strikes on the Ukrainka air base, a long-range aviation hub in Amur. Amur Regional Governor Vasily Orlov, said part of a truck had "caught fire" close to the village of Seryshevo, but denied the Ukrainka air base was targeted by drones. The Ukrainka base sits just outside of Seryshevo. Each of the 117 drones used to attack Russia's air bases on Sunday had its own operator, Zelensky said. All those who helped Kyiv execute the Spiderweb operation were pulled out of Russia before the drones flew, the president added. The main base in Russian territory where the operation was masterminded was "directly next to" an FSB regional headquarters, Zelensky added. Russia's FSB domestic security agency is the main descendent of the Soviet-era KGB. Russia's government said "some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained." The drone strikes came on the eve of fresh rounds of face-to-face talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Turkey. Initial discussions last month produced the largest prisoner swap of the war, but little shuffling toward a peace deal that U.S President Donald Trump vowed to broker. The strikes on Russia help Ukraine "negotiate from a position of strength," Oleksandr Merezhko, the head of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, told Newsweek on Monday. The White House was not told in advance of the drones zooming toward the airfields, CBS News reported, citing anonymous administration officials. Newsweek has reached out to the Pentagon and State Department via email. Moscow had upped the intensity of its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in recent weeks, drawing sharp rebuke from Trump, who is disinclined to overly criticize the Kremlin. Ukraine, meanwhile, has grappled with a chronic shortage of air defense systems, and the interceptor missiles they fire to shield key sites and the country's population. Ukraine's air force said on Monday Russia had launched overnight strikes on several Ukrainian regions, including the Chernihiv region northeast of Kyiv, with 80 drones, three hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and a cruise missile. A total of 52 drones were shot down or knocked off course by electronic warfare, the air force said. Ukraine is anticipating a potent Russian response to the drone strikes on its airfields, Stupak told Newsweek, suggesting Moscow could opt to launch one of its experimental Oreshnik missiles. Russia fired an Oreshnik missile for the first time at Ukraine in November 2024, striking the central city of Dnipro. Ukrainian authorities initially reported Russia had fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Moscow described the missile as a hypersonic, intermediate-range weapon. The Pentagon said at the time the Oreshnik, or "hazel tree," was based on the design of Moscow's RS-26 Rubezh ICBM, and the U.S. was notified "briefly before the launch through nuclear risk reduction channels."
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Ukraine destroyed 13 planes, damaged others in attack on Russian air bases: Officials
Ukraine destroyed at least 13 planes during an attack on Russian air bases, Ukraine's national security and defense council official said on Monday. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation, said some other planes were also damaged in the attack, in a post on the Telegram messaging app. Developing
