Latest news with #PearlHarbour
Scottish Sun
14 hours ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Deranged Putin lays out wish list of ‘surrender demands' for Ukraine… despite being humbled by Russia's ‘Pearl Harbour'
HUMILIATED tyrant Vladimir Putin has listed his "surrender demands" to Ukraine - despite being humbled by a devastating drone blitz the day earlier. Mad Vlad's negotiators suggested Ukraine effectively surrender in order to bring an end to the war, during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday. 13 Moscow's negotiating team proposed Putin's wish list of deranged demands after talks in Istanbul Credit: Alamy 13 Vladimir Putin seen on Monday - after he was humiliated by the attack Credit: Reuters 13 Russian Tu-95 bombers burning 'en masse' after Ukraine's sophisticated drone blitz on Sunday 13 Putin's payback strike in Odesa on June 3, days after the humiliating operation Spiderweb Credit: Reuters 13 It came just hours after Ukraine orchestrated operation Spiderweb, a sophisticated attack which saw 117 drones smuggled into Russia before unleashing hell on Putin's airfields. The attack, which took 18 months to plan and has reportedly cost Putin billions in damages, has been dubbed "Russia's Pearl Harbour". Now, his mouthpieces have given their terms for a ceasefire. Its first section contained Moscow's "basic parameters of a final settlement". The sham proposal demanded that Ukraine must withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partly occupies at the moment. It also ordered that the international community recognise Crimea as Russia's sovereign territory - after they annexed the peninsula in 2014. Putin's shopping list of demands went on to detail that Kyiv must commit to limiting the size of its military, permanently declare neutrality and host no foreign troops whatsoever on its territory. Other terms of the settlement included a bizarre ban on the "glorification or promotion of Nazism and neo-Nazism" in Ukraine - an accusation that Putin's propaganda teams have consistently peddled. Moscow also asked for diplomatic and economic ties between the neighbouring countries to be reinstated. This would include the resumption of Russian natural gas flowing through Ukraine in order to be sold to other countries. Ukraine's SAS-style 'Spiderweb' blitz step by incredible step: Smuggled drones, booby-trapped crates & a $7bn hammerblow The unrealistic demands have been seen as yet another ploy to stall peace talks while Putin continues to carry out his bloody invasion. The second section in the settlement listed the Kremlin's conditions for agreeing to a temporary 30-day ceasefire. It gave Kyiv two choices: Either withdraw troops from four regions claimed by Russia, or agree to cancelling martial law and holding elections. Additional requirements packaged up with the two options included a total cessation of all foreign military aid, and for Ukraine to start demobilising. The negotiations were brokered by the US and Turkey at the Ciragan palace - but appeared to bring neither side closer to a truce. But they did manage to agree to an exchange of 6,000 dead bodies, and an "all-for-all" swap of seriously wounded POWs, and captured servicemen under the age of 25. 13 The second round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, held in Turkey 13 Putin unleashed devastating retribution strikes on Tuesday Credit: Reuters 13 Putin's negotiating team after a second round of direct peace talks Credit: AFP 13 Russian locals filmed the drones taking off and attacking the air bases in awe 13 Russia offered local truces to collect the bodies – but Ukraine appeared to decline, as a senior military figure told The Telegraph that these pauses has been used before to prepare for fresh attacks. Neither side could bridge their differences on a 30-day ceasefire plan tabled by Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky. But the Don said on Monday that he was open to holding talks between himself, Zelensky and Putin. The aggressive demands made by Russia on Monday appeared to be almost identical to the set of proposals suggested in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion. These were interpreted as a full capitulation of Ukraine, and were rejected by Zelensky. Kyiv's proposals on Monday included security guarantees to prevent another Russian invasion, no international recognition of Moscow's occupation of Ukrainian territories and no restriction on Kyiv's military. A Ukrainian official familiar with the talks called them 'unproductive', and branded Moscow's settlement terms unacceptable. Kyiv's team were also accused of 'putting on a show' after they provided a list of hundreds of Ukrainian children they wanted returned from Russia. A Russian mouthpiece said: 'Do not put on a show for European tender-hearted aunties who do not have children themselves." They then offered to return just 10 of the 300 or so Ukrainian children kidnapped Putin's forces, according to The Telegraph. The Russian tyrant's demands came just one day after the most embarrassing security lapse of his war, which let allowed some 40 Russian strategic bombers to be destroyed. Dramatic footage captured the moment 117 expertly smuggled drones being stored inside trucks in Russia were launched by Ukraine - in an operation which Zelensky hailed as one of the "history books". The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia was reminiscent of the most daring raids of WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis. A triumphant Zelensky said: "It's genuinely satisfying when something I authorised a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation. "We will continue this work." Putin's doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac. 13 Ukraine hit bombers at the Russian Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk 13 Smoke could be seen from miles away as the planes burned
Metro
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Metro
Putin launches strikes across Ukraine in revenge for 'Pearl Harbour' drone blitz
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Vladimir Putin appears to be retaliating for Ukraine's 'Pearl Harbour' ambush on Russia, as Ukraine was rocked by major new strikes today. The overnight attacks came after 'peace talks' in Istanbul failed to agree to a ceasefire in the war. Two days after the humiliation of Ukraine's drone strikes devastating his key airbases in Sunday's Operation Spiderweb ambush, Putin has not appeared publicly. Cities across Ukraine were on fire today in savage new Russian strikes as the Kremlin dictator began exacting revenge for the destruction and damage to his nuclear-capable T-95MS and Tu-22M aircraft. At least three people were killed and two wounded in shelling on the Kramatorsk district of the Donetsk region. In the Kharkiv region, one person was killed and another injured as Putin's forces struck civilian areas, damaging a postal terminal and warehouse. Russian drones exploded in residential buildings in Chernihiv, with multiple casualties reported. In Odesa, four people were injured as fires blazed in the Black Sea port city, including at a warehouse filled with food products. The onslaught of Russian missile attacks could be revenge for Ukraine's attack on scores of Putin's nuclear bombers in a mass drone attack on airfields across Russia. At least 40 war planes were destroyed in what was described as 'the worst day in the history of the Russian air force'. The operation, codenamed 'Spider Web' and in planning for a year and a half, was launched by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on Sunday. It targeted airfields thousands of miles from the frontline, sources told the Kyiv Independent. The drones are understood to have been launched from trucks near to the airfields. The planes hit by Ukraine are expensive and vital parts of Russia's arsenal, with A-50 jets costing as much as £260 million each. Russia only has fewer than 10 of these planes in its possession. Other planes hit were the former nuclear bombers, the Tu-95s, and the more modern Tu-22s and Tu-160s, the largest operational bomber in the world. Russian forces are currently advancing inside Ukraine in the Sumy region, according to the Institute for the Study of War. More Trending Ukraine struck back against the advancing troops by destroying two power plants in Melitopol and Genichesk, leaving some 600,000 people without power in the occupied Zaporizhzhia and Kherson territories. The massive blackout was blamed on 'shelling by the Ukrainian Armed Forces' and damage to high-voltage equipment, said Putin-installed 'governor' Yevgeny Balitsky. Earlier today, Russia abruptly closed the £3 billion Crimean Bridge, linking its mainland to the Black Sea peninsula. There was one unconfirmed report of a marine drone strike on the structure. Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: I'm a liberal snowflake but I'd fight for Britain in a heartbeat MORE: Ukraine's 'Pearl Harbour' strike on Putin 'may have breached nuclear doctrine' MORE: Britain to spend £1,500,000,000 on new weapons factories in 'message' to Putin
Time of India
a day ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Game of drones: Season 3
AI-powered drones, as used by Ukraine deep in Russian territory, are here. India must invest in R&D In a first-of-its kind operation, Ukrainian forces launched a massive drone attack on Russia's bomber fleet, reportedly destroying more than 40 heavy aircraft. In what is being dubbed as Russia's 'Pearl Harbour' moment, the strikes took place at airbases thousands of kilometres away from the Russia-Ukraine frontline. The drones were smuggled into Russia and placed close to their targets on trucks. On Sunday, they were activated – exactly 29 years to the day when Ukraine handed over its last nuclear weapons to Russia as part of the Budapest Memorandum. It now appears that the drones were trained on AI algorithms to identify Russian bomber aircraft and hit them in their most vulnerable parts. Ukraine's 'Operation Spider's Web' again highlights how much drones have transformed warfare. In the Ukraine war, drone innovation is changing in weeks. If 2024 was the year of First-Person-View (FPV) drones, 2025 till last week belonged to fibre-optic FPV drones – an innovation by Russian forces – that are immune to electronic countermeasures. Ukraine now has levelled up with AI-powered drones. Given these developments, the war has ensured that AI-driven, autonomous weapons systems are no longer decades away. They are here. And it's not just aerial UAVs, but also sea drones like Ukraine's Magura and UGVs like Estonia's THeMIS – mini tank-like tracked platforms – that are increasingly being enabled by AI to perform autonomous swarm or group tasks. China recently unveiled an array of bird-mimicking drones or ornithopters that evade human and radar detection. To stay ahead of the curve India too needs to heavily invest in drone R&D. Op Sindoor gave us enough reasons to pursue this course. Plus, if drones worth just a few thousand dollars can take out millions of dollars worth of bombers, innovation becomes critical. But it also enhances asymmetric warfare and longevity of conflicts. That's why the second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia in Türkiye, has again failed to produce a ceasefire. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
News18
2 days ago
- Politics
- News18
'Trojan Horse', 'Pearl Harbour': Decoding Terms Used For Ukraine's Drone Attack On Russia
Last Updated: Ukraine launched a daring drone strike over 4,000 km from the border deep inside Russia, targeting five Russian airbases and damaging 41 nuclear bombers and warplanes. On June 1, Ukrainian forces launched one of the most audacious drone operations in modern military history, targeting multiple Russian airbases across 4,000 km of hostile territory. The attack took place on the eve of US-brokered ceasefire talks between the two countries in Istanbul. Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) carried out ' Operation Spider's Web ', using first-person-view (FPV) drones, which were reportedly hidden inside makeshift wooden cabins and mounted on trucks that were parked near major military airbases. They were remotely triggered, damaging at least 41 Russian heavy bombers and other warplanes. The daring attack on Russian military aircraft has led to comparisons with 'Pearl Harbour' and 'Russian Trojan Horse'. Ukraine claimed the attack caused $7 billion in damage and could deal a critical blow to Russia's aerial capabilities as it could no longer manufacture more of these aircraft. 'Today, a brilliant operation was carried out — on enemy territory, targeting only military objectives, specifically the equipment used to strike Ukraine. Russia suffered significant losses — entirely justified and deserved," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 'Trojan Horse' The audacious drone operation by Ukraine was compared to the legendary Trojan War between the Greeks and the city of Troy in Anatolia (now Turkey) in the 12th and 13th century BC, where a similarly deceptive attack was used to cripple enemy forces. As per reports, Ukraine concealed at least 117 FPV drones in the ceilings of transportation containers, along with mobile wooden cabins. The cabins were taken near major Russian airbases and opened remotely, and the drones swarmed and hammered Russia's bomber fleet, demolishing nearly one-thirds of bombers Moscow has. Once the horse was brought inside city walls, the soldiers hiding inside opened the gates of Troy, allowing Greek soldiers to enter and destroy the city. The Trojan War is famously known through Homer's renowned poems Iliad and the Odyssey, describing several events of the Trojan War, centring on the horrors of war and the themes of anger, pride, honour, fate, and mortality. 'Pearl Harbour' The drone attack is also being called Russia's Pearl Harbour, referring to the surprise Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbour, which paved the way for the entry of America into World War II and marked a critical point in world history. After more than three years of war between Russia and Ukraine, the Ukrainian Army unleashed a devastating attack on Russia's nuclear bombers and warplanes, which were originally designed to destroy the atomic weapons of the United States and Europe in case an all-out war broke out. Exploiting gaps in Russian intelligence, Ukrainian forces used a covert mission to deal a critical blow to Russia's bomber fleet. Ukraine destroyed Russia's TU-95 'Bear" nuclear bombers, TU-22 'Backfire" fast-attack bombers and A-50 'Mainstay" command-and-control jets in the strike. These warplanes were at the heart of cruise missile strikes in Ukraine. This attack was reminiscent of Imperial Japan's surprise attack on the Pearl Harbour base on December 7, 1941. Tensions between the US and Japan had reached a boiling point, after the imperial Army invaded Manchuria and China. After the US imposed strict trade restrictions on Japan, the latter launched pre-emptive strikes targeting airfields, battleships and other facilities at the strategic naval base located in Hawaii Japan managed to damage or sink at least 8 US battleships, while damaging or destroying three cruisers, three destroyers and 188 aircraft. More than 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack. On the next day, the US declared war on Japan and formally entered World War II. As the rivalry intensified into full-scale war, the US Navy turned the tide in its favour during the Battle of Midway, sinking four Japanese aircraft carriers. By 1945, Japan was on the brink of defeat when the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, causing unprecedented destruction. In the aftermath, Japan surrendered unconditionally and eventually became a close ally of the United States. Why Is Ukraine's Attack Significant? Ukraine's SBU said that 'Operation Spider's Web' was being planned for around 18 months. It differed from the sort of attacks Ukraine had unleashed so far, which were closer to areas adjoining Russia's border. This time, drones were used 4,000 km from the border, reaching as far as Siberia. Russia's defence ministry confirmed on Telegram that several of its military aircraft 'caught fire", adding that there were no casualties. Russian authorities said it had arrested several suspects, including the driver of a truck from which a drone had taken off, state agencies said. The impact of the drone strike also provided insight into the changing modes of modern warfare. Rybar, a Telegram account that is close to the Russian military, called it a 'very heavy blow" for Moscow and pointed to what it called 'serious errors" by Russian intelligence. First Published: June 02, 2025, 17:48 IST
India Today
2 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
How a Harvard-educated Japanese Admiral planned Pearl Harbour attack on US
In what could be a defining moment in the Russia-Ukraine war, Kyiv launched one of the biggest drone attacks under Operation Spider's Web and struck 4,000 km deep in Russian territory, destroying 41 strategic bombers, some of which were reportedly aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The Russian media and several pro-Kremlin bloggers referred to the attacks as Russia's "Pearl Harbour" moment, referring to the Imperial Japanese Navy's surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet in Hawaii in we dive into the historic Pearl Harbour attack, here's why the latest drone attack by Ukraine is being compared to the World War II the special forces' operation on Sunday, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said took "over a year and a half" of planning, Ukraine hit two Russian air bases in Olenya, Murmansk and Irkutsk, Siberia – over 6,000 km apart in different time zones. Such was the magnitude of the drone attack that over 30% of Russia's bomber fleet — Tu-95 and Tu-22s and A-50 airborne radars — was destroyed, suggest the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbour, this drone attack could also change the course of the war. The drone attack comes even as Russia hit Kyiv with missiles last week after Russian President Vladimir Putin's plane was reportedly targeted by Ukraine, a surprise escalation to the war after talks of a US AND JAPAN ENDED ON OPPOSITE SIDES IN WWIIadvertisementThe US foreign policy in the late 1930s hinged on support for China. However, at the beginning of the next decade, in 1941, Japan was deeply embroiled in a war with China to expand its empire across Southeast Asia, mainly for resources such as oil, metals, and per American policy then, aggression against China by Japan meant that Japan would come into direct conflict with the United States. Simultaneously, the Japanese had entered into an alliance with the Axis powers — Germany and the wake of these developments, the US, along with Britain and the Netherlands, imposed severe economic sanctions, including an oil embargo, which threatened Japan's military operations, which by July 1941 had occupied all of Indochina. The US government by this time had severed all commercial and financial relations with JAPANESE ADMIRAL PLANNED PEARL HARBOUR ATTACKJapanese leaders, particularly Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, believed a pre-emptive strike against the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbour, Oahu, Hawaii, would not only hold back the US naval power long enough for Japan to secure its Asian conquests, but also force Washington into negotiations with who had studied English at Harvard and served as a naval attache in Washington, understood America's industrial potential but gambled on a full-blown per Seymour Morris Jr, the author of 'American History Revised: 200 Startling Facts That Never Made to the Textbooks', if Washington had done some serious background checking into Yamamoto's student days when he was a student at Harvard from 1919 to 1921, they would have uncovered useful clues to his psychological makeup, mentions Harvard Magazine's official magazine makes mention of a psychological trait of Yamamoto, quoting Morris, who said, "When they (Yamamoto's classmates) introduced him to the game of poker, he became a fanatical poker player who would stay up all night, winning hand after hand. And what did he do with his poker winnings – lead the good life? No, not at all: he hitchhiked around the country during the summer, exploring America". The Harvard Magazine also mentions that years later, as a naval attache at the Japanese embassy in Washington DC, and still a compulsive poker player, Yamamoto gambled with members of the US military. "Spurred on by his victories," Morris wrote, "he developed contempt for the mental agility of his American naval opponents at the poker table."Two decades later, as the admiral of the Japanese navy, Yamamato's strategy was akin to playing a hand of poker — a surprise aerial assault on Pearl Harbour, using carrier-based planes. Japanese pilots began training extensively in shallow-water torpedo attacks, as Pearl Harbour was only 40-feet FLEET AT PEARL HARBOUR CAUGHT BY SURPRISEOn December 7, 1941, the war drums rolled and the first wave of Japanese attacks came, lasting almost 50 minutes, from 7:55 am to 8:45 am. The ships, which were moored together, made them easy targets for the Japanese. Over 180 Japanese warplanes from 6 aircraft carriers struck US airfields and battleships in the first wave of the attack, a 1,760-pound armour-piercing bomb hit the USS Arizona's magazine, causing a massive explosion, killing 1,177 sailors. Soon, torpedoes sank the USS Oklahoma, killing 429 naval men. Just five minutes later, a second wave of attacks came with over 160 warplanes that targeted the remaining vessels, the shipyards, and other US intelligence reports suggest they suspected a conflict soon after sanctions against Japan, but they were caught off guard by such a massive assault. An Army radar operator spotted the incoming planes but was told they were expected to be US attack left 2,403 US soldiers dead, and 1,178 wounded. A total of eight US battleships were sunk in the attack and 188 aircraft were next day, on December 8, 1941, the United States entered the Second World War, declaring a war on Japan. Four days later, Axis powers Germany and Italy declared war on the US on December Pearl Harbour attack finally made the US join World War II and changed the course of the war. The attack on its Pacific Fleet also contributed to the US emerging as a global leader in the coming decade. As the OG Pearl Harbour changed the course of history, the "modern Pearl Harbour" could change the shape of things to come.
