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NBC News
3 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
Ukraine's massive drone attack deep inside Russia highlights how they have changed battlefield tactics
Dubbed operation 'Spiderweb,' Ukraine's audacious drone attack Sunday on four Russian air bases — one of them deep inside Siberia — has brought the use of unmanned aerial vehicles in modern warfare sharply into focus. While accounts differ on the extent of the damage caused by the drones, which were reportedly smuggled to the perimeter of the bases in the backs of trucks, Ukraine's security service, the SBU, put the estimated cost to the Kremlin at $7 billion. Russia has said little about the attacks, although the country's defense ministry acknowledged in a statement that some planes caught fire. The strikes have highlighted the increasing importance of drones for both Russia and Ukraine in the war, which entered its fourth year in February. And experts told NBC News that both sides are increasingly turning to cheap, commercially available first-person view or quadcopter drones that can often be purchased from online retailers and easily converted into deadly weapons — simple technology that is having a huge impact on the battlefield in Ukraine and further afield. Their use is 'going to become very, very common,' Robert Lee, a senior fellow at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute think tank, told NBC News in an interview. Drones were used when Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime was overthrown in December, he said. 'They're here and because they're ubiquitous, because they are quite useful and they're demonstrating that every day in Ukraine,' he said. 'There's no doubt that they're going to be used by all sorts of groups, whether it's criminal groups or terrorist groups, and they pose a quite significant threat,' he said, adding, 'I think we're a little bit behind the power curve on this and actually getting ready to counter them.' Targeting civilians As she was riding her bicycle to a cosmetology appointment in Antonivka, a rural community in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, Anastasia Pavlenko, 23, said she noticed a drone 'hunting' her. 'It took off, followed me and I zigzagged on the bike,' the mother of two said of the September attack, adding that a second drone suddenly appeared with 'a shell attached to it.' Despite her best attempts to escape, she said the second drone dropped the shell 'right on my head' and it bounced down onto her thigh and exploded on the asphalt next to her. 'Blood was coming from my neck, and there were fragments under my ribs,' Pavlenko said, adding she somehow managed to keep cycling and take cover under a bridge where she screamed for help until she started to lose consciousness. 'I just had a small purse, shorts, a T-shirt and long loose hair, so it was clear that I was a girl,' she said, adding that she was not wearing military colors or carrying any weapons when she was hit. Doctors were unable to remove shrapnel fragments from her neck, ribs, or leg, she said, adding she had been unable to return to work at her coffee shop because she 'can't handle physical stress.'
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Why Ukraine's astonishing drone attack on Russia was so effective
Ukraine's astonishing surprise drone attack on Russia's nuclear-capable strategic bombers on Sunday highlighted Ukraine's strategic savvy against its much larger invader. It could also slow the already beleaguered diplomatic talks between the two countries to end the war, given how humiliating it was for Moscow. The remarkable operation, known as Operation Spider's Web, involved trucks smuggling 117 aerial drones into Russia and depositing them at the perimeter of four Russian air bases, NBC News reports, citing Ukrainian officials. One of those air bases was 2,500 miles behind Russian borders, deep in Siberia. The drones were then activated and did extraordinary damage to Russian air fleets, as NBC News reports: While there are differing accounts on the extent of the ensuing damage of Sunday's 'Spiderweb' operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 40 Russian aircraft — 34% of Russia's strategic cruise missile carriers — were hit. Ukraine's security service, the SBU, put the estimated cost to the Kremlin at $7 billion. Some military commentators and pro-Russian bloggers have called it the country's 'Pearl Harbor' — a reference to Japanese attack in 1941 that saw the United States enter World War II. Of course the attack was not like Pearl Harbor in one crucial respect: that Ukraine is retaliating against a belligerent invading its borders, whereas Japan's attack on the U.S. was an unprovoked strike that spurred the U.S. to enter World War II. But the level of coordination, the element of surprise and the scale of the damage done to valuable aircraft made it a spectacular maneuver. Zelenskyy said the strike took a year and a half to plan, and praised its execution as 'absolutely brilliant.' Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote on X that the strike "will degrade Russia's ability to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine, and will force Russia to shift resources to protect facilities far from Ukraine." Ukraine's operation came just before a new round of peace negotiations between the two countries kicked off in Istanbul on Monday, and the attacks may have made Moscow even more aggressive toward Ukraine and resistant to compromise than it might have been otherwise. Reuters reports that "the mood in Russia was angry as the talks kicked off, with influential war bloggers calling on Moscow to deliver a fearsome retaliatory blow against Kyiv." Russia already sent nearly 500 drones into Ukraine over the weekend. "We can expect a great deal of sound and fury from Moscow," Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow with the London-based think-tank Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia program, told NBC News. Russia 'will be working hard on convincing the United States to attempt to rein Ukraine in, in order to prevent any further damage to Russia's means of bombarding Ukrainian cities with long range missiles." At the same time, Russia has already shown few signs of a willingness to compromise in negotiations with Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin knows he has something of an ally in President Donald Trump, who has butted heads with Zelenskyy in front of the press. One sign that Russia is already not committing to the talks seriously: It sent a far more junior official than Ukraine did to the talks in Istanbul. At the negotiations Monday, Moscow rejected Kyiv's demand for an unconditional ceasefire before settling on the terms of a long-term deal. Ultimately the longer Trump declines to apply real pressure to Russia, the longer the war likely drags on. This article was originally published on
Mint
18-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
Ukraine is making more weapons than ever—but still can't fight Russia alone
In the first years of Russia's invasion, Ukraine relied heavily on a host of Western weapons to equip its forces. Now, out of the crucible of war, Kyiv's own defense industry is producing more arms than ever. Ukraine had only a single prototype of its domestically produced Bohdana howitzer when Russia invaded. Last year, Kyiv said it produced more artillery guns than all the North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries combined. While Western allies have been slow to increase arms production, the value of weapons Ukraine's defense industry can make has ballooned from $1 billion in 2022 to $35 billion over three years of war, even as Russia fires missiles at its factories. With support from the U.S. drying up, Ukraine's defense industry is increasingly key to the country's ability to sustain the fight against Russia—or underwrite its sovereignty in the event of a peace deal. The more of its own weapons Ukraine can produce, the less vulnerable it will be to the vagaries of international politics or kinks in cross-border supply chains. The country also sees its defense industry as a postwar revenue stream for its battered economy and a way to further integrate itself into the West by becoming one of its suppliers. 'Ukraine will always need its own strong weapons so that we can have our own strong Ukrainian state," President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. More than 40% of the weapons used on the front line with Russia are now made in Ukraine, Zelensky said. In some areas, such as drones, unmanned ground systems, and electronic warfare, the figure is close to 100%. Ukrainian manufacturers are also churning out growing quantities of traditional armaments such as artillery systems, armored vehicles, mines and ammunition of all calibers. Vitaliy Zagudaiev says his company is producing more than 20 Bohdanas a month. 'In Western countries there's more competition for the best computer science grads or IT people," said Rob Lee, senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a foreign-policy think tank. 'In Ukraine, much of the best talent has gone into defense." But even the robust transformation of its homegrown arsenal won't be enough for Ukraine to hold back Moscow's forces alone. Ukraine needs the U.S. and other Western allies to square up to Russia's war machine. It can't produce anywhere near enough ammunition to keep its guns firing, or any of the air-defense interceptors it needs to shield against Russian missiles. And while arms production has boomed, Kyiv's budget is strained. This year, the government will only be able to purchase less than half of what defense manufacturers can produce, said Oleksandr Kamyshin, an adviser to Zelensky and former minister of strategic industries. 'It's painful when you can't produce and you've got nothing to fight with," he said. 'It's twice as painful when you can produce, but you can't fund the procurement." To harness the spare capacity, some Western governments are funding weapons purchases from Ukrainian defense companies under the so-called Danish model in which instead of supplying Kyiv with Western weapons, they provide funds to purchase arms from Ukrainian defense manufacturers. 'Investing directly in these companies might be the best use of available funds in terms of achieving an impact on the battlefield," said Lee. The war has served as a testing ground for a range of weapons that hadn't previously seen active service, providing NATO countries with valuable lessons on how they perform in battle. Ukraine inherited a swath of the Soviet defense industry when it gained independence, but those manufacturing capabilities quickly went into decline. A private company developed the Bohdana in 2016, but received no orders before Russia invaded, said Vitaliy Zagudaiev, director general of the Kramatorsk Heavy Duty Machine Tool Building Plant. After Russia invaded in 2022, fears that the system would be captured were so great that Zagudaiev received instructions to dismantle the only prototype. Until then, it had only been used as part of an Independence Day parade. Soon, however, Zagudaiev received instructions to put the gun back together, to use on the front line. Deployed alongside a French-built Caesar self-propelled howitzer, the Bohdana pounded Russian positions on Snake Island in the Black Sea, forcing Moscow to relinquish the rocky outcrop in the first summer of the war. Orders for the Bohdana began to roll in, but the plant in eastern Ukraine was in Russia's crosshairs. Under fire, workers began relocating production to new facilities in the west of the country, but not before more than half the equipment was destroyed. Lead times for replacement orders were too long, so the company made its own equipment. Production was dispersed to minimize the impact of any Russian attack. If a missile successfully struck one facility, the others could still keep producing. Working round the clock, production of the gun soon outstripped the supply of wheeled chassis on which the Bohdana is mounted. The company is now producing more than 20 Bohdanas a month, said Zagudaiev. Russia can make about 40 artillery guns over the same period, according to a study by the Kiel Institute. The final Bohdana is only assembled at the last moment to minimize the chances of being targeted before reaching the front line. 'One of the lessons of this war is that the demand for quantity is very high," said Lee. 'It's not just about having exquisite systems—it's do you have enough to sustain a high-intensity war for a year or more without significantly degrading your military?" While the Swedish-built Archer or Germany's Panzer 200 howitzers have more sophisticated electronics, they take longer to produce and are much costlier. The self-propelled Bohdana costs 2.8 million euros apiece, equivalent to $3.1 million, compared with €8.76 million for the Archer, or about €4 million for the Caesar. And the Bohdana is easier to repair and maintain. 'Any part is available within 24 hours," said Zagudaiev. 'We have mobile brigades working on the entire front line." About 85% of the Bohdana's components are now produced domestically, including the barrel, which wears out over time. The company is developing its own chassis to further reduce dependence on imports, Zagudaiev said. Last year, it began producing a towed gun, which is cheaper than the self-propelled version and useful in defense. Feedback from operators on the front line is continually incorporated during design tweaks. Each of the Bohdana's electrical or hydraulic systems has a corresponding mechanical system. That makes the gun heavier but means it can keep working in the event of an electrical or hydraulic failure, Zagudaiev said. The Danish government is funding the purchase 18 Bohdana howitzers for Ukraine's armed forces. The Bohdana shows how far Ukraine's defense industry has come. But efforts to produce NATO-standard 155mm ammunition, central to the war effort, illustrate the obstacles. Vladyslav Belbas says a lack of financing has held up a project to produce NATO-standard ammunition. Private company Ukrainian Armor set up a facility to produce 155mm ammunition with the license and drawings transferred by the Czechoslovak Group, which is also supplying propellant, fuses and primers that can't be produced in Ukraine. The company, which also makes armored vehicles, had planned to produce 100,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition this year and 300,000 next year—a fraction of the three to four million rounds Ukraine is estimated to go through a year. The project, however, is on hold because the company hasn't received funds from the government, said chief executive Vladyslav Belbas. 'We should move faster," he said. 'It's more than just business for us." Write to Isabel Coles at
South China Morning Post
03-05-2025
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Will Syria challenges stand in the way of China's Middle East ambitions?
China has 'lots to learn' if it hopes to transition from a bystander to a credible mediator in the Middle East , according to analysts, who noted that Beijing faced major challenges in engaging Syria's new government. Advertisement They made the comments during a virtual panel on Monday held by US-based think tank the Foreign Policy Research Institute. While meeting the Chinese ambassador to the United Nations Fu Cong in New York on Monday, Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said the two countries would 'work together to build a long-term strategic partnership in the near future', according to Damascus. But China, a key backer of ousted Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, now faced a 'reputational crisis', particularly among local authorities in Syria, said Jesse Marks, a non-resident fellow with the Stimson Centre's China programme who specialises in China-Middle East relations. He said China faced a deeply uncomfortable dilemma in Syria, where it would have to deal with a new government dominated by UN-identified 'terrorists'. Advertisement Assad, whose family had ruled over Syria for more than half a century, was overthrown in December following years of civil war . Members of the militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) now hold pivotal cabinet positions in Syria's new government, with Ahmed al-Sharaa as interim president.
Bloomberg
04-04-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
How Does Diplomacy Work Now?
In A History of Diplomacy (Reaktion Books, 2010), historian Jeremy Black challenged the traditional take on international relations. Black, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, charted the development of a global diplomatic system that is constantly evolving, shaped by domestic political agendas, conflicts, culture and new technologies. In this Next Chapter, Black revisits the subject against the backdrop of dramatic twists in the global order. Thus British writer and politician Arthur Ponsonby offered a critique of the work of the diplomat in his 1915 book Democracy and Diplomacy: A Plea for Popular Control of Foreign Policy. This assessment is all-too true of so much writing about international relations: Scholars, in the cloistered calm of academic aloofness, present diplomacy as primarily the work of bureaucrats operating in a rigid system, who guard the interests of their nations with mounds of dispatches and memoranda.
