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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
How Zelensky's men plotted 'Op Spider's Web' that blew $7bn hole in Putin's 'irreplaceable' nuke bomber fleet: Experts praise 'genius' attack but warn of 'violent' response from humiliated Kremlin
It was a top-secret operation some 18 months in the planning. Codenamed 'Spider's Web', it was executed with devastating effect yesterday afternoon and was as audacious as it was genius. And as Volodymyr Zelensky said, just one day before Ukrainian and Russian delegates were set to meet for negotiations in Turkey's capital Istanbul, the attack on Vladimir Putin's irreplaceable nuclear bombers 'will undoubtedly be in [the] history books'. The attack on the Russian bomber fleet came exactly 29 years to the day after Ukraine handed over dozens of the same strategic bombers to Russia, along with up to 2,000 strategic nuclear warheads and 176 ICBMs in exchange for a promise not to be attacked, under the Budapest Memorandum. First Ukrainian special forces smuggled dozens of first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones – which allow pilots to control them remotely through a live feed – into Russia. Then came mobile wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden compartments into which the small flying weapons were stashed. They were loaded on to civilian trucks heading into enemy territory, their hired local drivers seemingly unaware of what they were carrying. Finally, yesterday afternoon, with all the lorries within range of five airfields stretching from northern Russia down to Siberia – a safe 2,500 miles from Ukraine – they struck. The roofs of the wooden cabins were opened remotely and the FPV drones took to the skies. With the help of front-positioned cameras, the missile-loaded drones headed straight for Russia's highly expensive bomber planes. Footage showed decimated enemy planes in flames on the runway and last night Ukrainian security sources claimed to have taken out 41 aircraft worth some £1.5billion. These, they say, include the nuclear capable Tu-95 and Tu-22M as well as the surveillance A-50 'Mainstay' plane, worth an estimated £250,000 that is used as a radar and command centre, of which Russia is only believed to have around ten in operation. 'Mainstays' are critical to coordinating Russian fighter jets and air defences, meaning that this will have severely hampered Putin's war effort. Moscow has long stopped producing any of these aircraft meaning, if confirmed, these assets could not be replaced. There are only around 120 Tu-95s and Tu-22Ms in operation and they are vital for Vladimir Putin 's nightly bombing raids on Ukraine. They had been moved to bases thousands of miles away from Ukraine, out of reach of Western-donated Storm Shadows and ATACMS which have a range of up to 185 miles. The FPVs, which can reach just 12 miles, would have been the last thing on Russian minds. The attack drew comparisons to the 1942 SAS raid on the Sidi Haneish airfield in Egypy, when elite British commandos put 40 Luftwaffe aircraft out of action using jeeps mounted with machine guns. While the attack wasn't a pivotal moment in the Desert War, it massively boosted British morale and disrupted Axis logistics in North Africa. It was also one of the pivotal events that helped forge the legendary status of the SAS. Former RAF pilot and military analyst Mikey Kay told the BBC: 'The Russians would never have expected something like this. 'I mean, it's genius, if you think about just the devastating effect that it's had on strategic assets of Putin.' Philip O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University said the raid was 'the most remarkable and successful operation of the war.' He added: 'This is a big blow to Russian strategic air power, which is hard to overestimate. 'We do not know what the Russian reaction will be, however we can assume it will be violent.' A Telegram channel called Fighterbomber, widely believed to be run by Captain Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, wrote of the attack: 'Today will later be called a black day for Russian long-range aviation. And the day is not over yet.' Military blogger Roman Alekhin said the incident will go down as 'Russia's Pearl Harbour'. Mr Zelensky, who is said to have overseen the operation over the last year and a half, celebrated the strike on social media last night. The Ukrainian president wrote: 'A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation.' He added: 'These are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in [the] history books.' A delegation from Kyiv is due to meet counterparts from Moscow for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul today but it was not clear last night if it would still go ahead. Ukraine has said that its proposals will include a full 30-day ceasefire followed by the return of all prisoners held by each side. Negotiators also want some 20,000 Ukrainian children who were kidnapped by Russia to be repatriated before Mr Zelensky and Putin meet. Russia has so far refused to agree to a 30-day pause in fighting and overnight on Saturday launched its largest strike of the war so far with 472 drones and seven missiles. Kyiv's Operation Spider's Web struck Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia; Dyagilevo air base in Ryazan, western Russia; Olenya air base in Murmansk, northern Russia; and Ivanovo air base in Ivanovo, central Russia. The fifth air base was yet to be identified last night. The operation, led by Mr Zelensky and security service boss Lieutenant General Vasyl Malyuk, marks the first time Ukraine has struck targets inside Siberia. Kyiv put the cost of the damage at more than £1.5billion because each A-50 aircraft is valued at around £260million. Last night Russia was arresting the truck drivers, but hours earlier Ukraine had reported that its agents were safely home. FPV drones usually need a pilot within six miles which suggests Ukrainians may have been close to the airfields during the strikes. Hours before the drone strikes a wave of bomb attacks targeted Russian bridges and railway lines in regions bordering Ukraine. Russia declared them 'acts of terrorism' with seven killed and dozens injured when a passenger train travelling to Moscow was derailed by a collapsed bridge in Bryansk on Saturday night. Hours later, in neighbouring Kursk where Ukraine launched its major cross-border incursion last August, a freight train was derailed by another fallen bridge. A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers yesterday and wounded more than 60 others, the Ukrainian army said. Kyiv has carried out a series of daring attacks on Russia since the start of the war, with one of first being the counter-offensive which liberated the city of Kherson in November 2022. Ukrainian armed forces also took swathes of territory in Kursk last August in what was the first occupation of Russian land since the Second World War.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Leland Vittert's War Notes: Showdown in the Oval
Love in the air: Welcome to a travel-sized version of 'War Notes.' Rachel and I are on the road for wedding planning activities. A few days ago, our line producer mentioned right before the show, 'You are in double digits to your wedding.' This statement confused me until she reminded me that she and her fiancé are getting married on the same day as us, June 7. WOW: President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance's double-teaming of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office channeled an inner anger among common-sense Americans. Watch one of the most stunning diplomatic exchanges since World War II here. Zelensky turned Trump from neutral into an enemy – what an incredibly stupid unforced error. Duh: You don't come to the Oval Office having taken hundreds of billions in American aid and lecture or threaten the president of the United States – you just don't do it. Evidently, Zelensky believed all the statements from crying Europeans at the Munich Security Conference. President Trump released a statement afterward: 'We had a very meaningful meeting in the White House today. Much was learned that could never be understood without conversation under such fire and pressure. It's amazing what comes out through emotion, and I have determined that President Zelensky is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don't want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace.' He then canceled a planned joint press conference between him and Zelensky. Deja vu: Remember when Trump pulled the ejection handle and left his summit with Kim Jong Un? No doubt: Erick Erickson tweeted after the fiery exchange, 'Regardless of who you blame, this was a very good day for Vladimir Putin.' More importantly: Was this a good day for America? We will have a full analysis tonight, but we called out Zelensky in real time back in 2022 when we wrote: 'Ukraine's president just went from war hero to zero – in about the time it took for a Vogue photoshoot. 'In the midst of war, Vogue magazine flew over famed photographer Annie Leibovitz for an artsy, high-fashioned shoot. 'It includes Zelensky's wife, Olena Zelenska, posing amid bombed out planes and apartment buildings complete in gowns with Ukrainian Special Forces guarding her.' The headline is 'Portrait of Bravery.' Evidently, 'Portrait of Hubris' was taken. The Zelenskys just showed the world who they are – we would be wise to believe them. URGENT WARNING: Our buddy Chris Cillizza breaks down the only poll the White House should be paying attention to right now: a CBS poll that shows growing concern and discontent about the economy. Watch: As Frank Luntz told us a few days ago, 30% of Americans are paycheck-to-paycheck voters – they care a lot more about grocery prices than owning the liberals. Today, Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States. Culture war executive orders are luxury issues. 🟰 This is the MAGA equivalent of Democrats who focused on 'climate justice' and defunding the police. We all know how that worked out for the Democrats. Fun read: 'The Adolescent Style in American Politics,' headlines The Atlantic's Jill Filipovic. 'The version of manhood placed on display by Trump and his aides is the one imagined by teenage boys.' Yes, it's overly dismissive and condescending, but so were Obama and Harris, just in different ways. The author joins us tonight to discuss how the Left views MAGA and whether teenage boys are onto something. Robbing Banks! Famed bank robber William Sutton famously told FBI agents he robbed banks 'because that's where the money is.' Well, the DOGE team finally found the banks in D.C.: The contractors. 'This Company Gets 98% of Its Money From the U.S. Government. DOGE Is Coming for Firms Like It,' Chip Cutter of The Wall Street Journal headlines. 'Memo calls for review of $65 billion in contracts that go to Booz Allen Hamilton and other big firms that do government work,' Cutter continues. Thought bubble 💭: Getting a reservation at D.C.'s fanciest restaurants is about to get a LOT easier. The contractors are where the real money is. Amateur Hour When fringe conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer is pissed at MAGA, it's a bad day for MAGA. She used to be the 4D chess explainer. I never thought I would link to Loomer's Twitter feed, but it is a pretty good indictment of what happened yesterday with the Epstein files. Just a few weeks into the administration, Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi is effectively blaming the FBI director, Kash Patel, for an embarrassing publicity stunt that wildly backfired. Look back: Earlier this week, Bondi and Trump lawyer Alina Habba went on TV promising huge explosive revelations in 'declassified' Espstein files. Rather than just release the documents online to everyone, Bondi reportedly printed up binders and handed them out at a conservative influencers event at the White House. The documents turned out to be nothing new. Bondi got torched – rightfully so – for the stunt. She sent a letter claiming the FBI office in New York was 'withholding documents' and demanded them by 8 a.m. this morning. Wait – she promised bombshells earlier this week and delivered nothing – did she not LOOK at the binder she was releasing? But now, somehow, Bondi is the victim of a deep state conspiracy to protect Epstein? The whole thing is objectively embarrassing – not to mention we still don't have the promised Epstein files. Bondi promised to take politics out of the Department of Justice. When you start handing out binders to conservative political activists on Twitter, it's OBJECTIVELY political. Watch: Our buddy Erick Erickson with the best breakdown of this complete unforced error here. The Crying Do-Gooders This picture in The Wall Street Journal of USAID workers cleaning out their offices caught my eye. Be fair: USAID workers aren't in it for the glory or the money. They are mostly hard-working folks who get paid a fair, but not outlandish, salary to help poor folks around the world – often in personally dangerous situations. Laughing at their tears, as many on the Right do, is goolish. Zoom out: Many of their projects are absurd – we've all heard some of the crazier ones – click here. No sympathy: The Left turned USAID from a force of goodwill for America with: AIDS prevention projects Food aid Meaningful public works assistance Into a pork barrel buffet of wokeness peddling. Therein lies the problem – the Left destroyed their credibility. When you spend two billion taxpayer dollars on environmental justice, nobody trusts you when complaining about cuts to some really important programs. Flip side: The above holds true for Elon Musk. He's promising $2 trillion in DOGE savings without touching entitlements. Read more from Axios' Mike Allen with the facts here. What I am thinking 💭: Musk is promising flying cars for everyone by next year – the DOGE stuff is continuing to nibble around the edges. But wait, there is more: The nonstop DOGE infomercial says there will be the DOGE dividend coming – $5,000 to every net taxpayer. And more:Musk will save the FAA because Starlink can replace Verizon. Never mind the self-dealing accusations. Musk will never get a fair shake from The Washington Post. It all sounds way too fanciful. Musk risks wrecking his credibility on cutting spending just like liberals did by spending like drunken sailors. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
How Oscar-Nominated Doc ‘Porcelain War' Uses Art to Show Ukraine's Fighting Spirit
Nominated for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar, 'Porcelain War' is a poignant, enriching film about the power of creativity in conflict zones. The film traces the making of vibrant ceramic figurines by two dedicated artists in the nation of Ukraine, which is now approaching its fourth year of warfare since Russia's military invasion. Directors Slava Leontyev and Brendan Bellomo, along with producer Paula DuPré Pesman, joined TheWrap's Editor-in-Chief Sharon Waxman for a post-screening Q&A on Thursday night in Los Angeles that was part of our ongoing Screening Series. In addition to co-directing, Leontyev is also a subject of the documentary. An artist and former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces, he lives with his wife Anya Stasenko in a rural area outside Crimea. They both create objects of beauty, such as the delicate porcelain dolls that came to symbolize the fragility of life during war. 'From the very beginning, [Anya and I] decided we'll never be focused on destruction,' Leontyev said during the discussion. 'We'll never be focused on violence because it's senseless to bring audiences extra news footage. We'll be focused on personal experience and on beauty. All the devastation looked the same. All these crumbled buildings looked the same.' Leontyev pointed out the metaphors of nature and art — from dandelions to snails without shells — to tell a touching story of Ukraine's fight and resilience. 'We felt we were the eyes of our project, we were the people on the ground,' he said. 'And we looked around really attentively, because all is so fragile during the war. And we filmed every flower, every huge forest or building or person. We filmed [it] all like it was the last day of the existence because all is fragile and nobody knows who will survive for tomorrow.' At the screening, the filmmakers also brought along porcelain pieces, such as the ones featured in the documentary, for the audience to see: In terms of the logistics of making a film in Ukraine, Colorado-based co-director Bellomo addressed the complex chain of Zoom calls and networking that went into the endeavor. 'We began with the first of many challenges: How do you bring a camera into a war zone?' Bellomo said. 'It's not like you could just ship something which reliably gets FedExed right there to the front line. We discovered there was a network of volunteers and it was actually a makeup artist from New Jersey who was stockpiling duffel bags of medical supplies, 50, 60 at a time, 3,000 pounds.' Bellomo used the makeup artist's freight expertise and also set up an 'impromptu film school' with Leontyev and the film's cinematographer Andrey Stefanov, also a member of Ukraine's special forces. 'That was so that [Leontyev and Stefanov] could take their artistic instincts and translate them into cinema,' Bellomo said. 'And in this time [Leontyev] and I, we would start sketching, and these sketches became storyboards and diagrams, ideas for shots. We looked at paintings, sculptures and pieces of cinema that we loved and we realized we're fluent in the same language in visual art and so we had this very rich collaboration.' Expressing the message of the film, Bellomo added, 'The opposite of war is not peace and tranquility, it's creativity. And when they're choosing to seek out beauty, to be inspired by it and to create more, that is an act of resistance of creative resistance.' And to that point, Leontyev addressed the war in Ukraine today, acknowledging that a new administration in the White House might likely lead to changing dynamics around the conflict, but that his country will persist. 'Ukraine still can fight against Russia — and Ukraine only,' he said, adding that Vladimir Putin has resorted to dragging North Korean soldiers onto the front lines. 'They really need help from Korea. They are using pretty old Korean weapons and ammunition and even soldiers. They really need help. Maybe they will get help from the President of the United States, but it's not our issue. We [are] already OK. Ukraine is strong.' For the full video, including the filmmakers' wild story of acquiring music for the movie's soundtrack from Ukrainian folk band DakhaBrakha, click here. The post How Oscar-Nominated Doc 'Porcelain War' Uses Art to Show Ukraine's Fighting Spirit appeared first on TheWrap.
