Innovative Ukrainian Mini-Drone Strike Hits Strategic Bombers and Aircraft Deep In Russia
A masterclass in cunning and precision reminiscent of Israel’s “pager” strike.
In one of the most quietly brilliant operations of the war, Ukrainian forces carried out a coordinated drone strike on four strategic Russian air bases—an assault built not on brute force, but on invisibility, patience, and planning. The mission called “Operation Spider’s Web” involved 117 drones and was personally overseen by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. It caused an estimated $11 billion in damage to Russia’s bomber fleet.
FOUR RUSSIAN STRATEGIC AIR BASES TARGETED
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) June 1, 2025
According to journalist Illia Ponomarenko, the drones were launched from parked trucks staged deep inside Russian territory. These mobile platforms, camouflaged to look like ordinary cargo haulers, served as remote drone bays, allowing swarms of FPV (first-person view) drones to launch with deadly accuracy.
I don't think it would be much of an exaggeration to call this one of the greatest special operations of all time.
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) June 1, 2025
I mean, swarms of simple FPV drones coming out of parked trucks and wiping out strategic air bases from Russia's far north to east Siberia… it's a grand masterpiece. pic.twitter.com/XhhvCPKhqF
— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) June 1, 2025
The New York Post reports:
Others targeted were in Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, Ryazan southeast of Moscow, and Ivanovo, to the northeast of the Russian capital.
The attack, codenamed “Operation Spider’s Web,” took some 18 months of planning and will deal a huge blow to Moscow’s efforts to launch long-range missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, Kyiv said.
Crucially, every Ukrainian operative involved in staging the equipment had already crossed back into Ukraine by the time the strike began, according to Sky News. Ukrainian sources claim that anyone arrested in Russia “would be just for show.” There was no direct confrontation, only a clean setup, total withdrawal, and then a remote-triggered attack.
BREAKING:
Ukraine releases pictures showing how they smuggled into the drones that destroyed large parts of Russia’s Strategic Air Force today.
They smuggled FPV drones into Russia. They later in hid the drones in wooden compartments of modified cargo trucks. They hired… pic.twitter.com/VtHw2lBTVS
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 1, 2025
Visegrád 24 reported that the containers housing the drones were disguised as standard cargo, allowing them to be deployed and parked without raising suspicion. Nothing about the trucks stood out, no flashy equipment, no telltale markings, just unremarkable vehicles quietly waiting for the right signal.
Newsweek reported that there were no casualties, stating:
“No casualties were reported either among servicemen or civilians. Some of those involved in the terror attacks were detained,” the statement continued. “As a result of the launch of FPV drones from territories in the exact proximity to military airfields in the Murmansk and Irkutsk Regions, several aircraft caught fire. The fires were extinguished.”
Ukraine’s domestic security agency, the SBU, claimed responsibility, with one Ukrainian security official saying the agency loaded up drones into wooden sheds near the perimeter of the impacted air bases. The sheds had remote-controlled mechanisms to pull back the roofs and allow the drones to launch, Reuters reported.
There were no shootouts. No last-minute escapes. Just a precision strike planned to perfection. The drones didn’t cross the border under fire. They were already there, waiting.
This will be in textbooks.
Ukraine secretly delivered FPV drones and wooden mobile cabins into Russia. The drones were hidden under the roofs of the cabins, which were later mounted on trucks.At the signal, the roofs opened remotely. Dozens of drones launched directly from the… pic.twitter.com/sJyG3WyYYI
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) June 1, 2025
Ukraine is still reportedly on the attack, and the second wave is more in the open:
BREAKING:
Ukraine launched another large swarm of suicide drones against Russia moments ago pic.twitter.com/smLcuhN24i
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 1, 2025
The success of the mission wasn’t measured only by what was destroyed, but by how it was done. In a war defined by high-tech weapons and high-profile battles, this was something else entirely: a quiet operation pulled off with minimal visibility and maximum impact. Russia is expected to retaliate.
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Comments
Why are Ukraine, and its European allies, so eager to start WWIII? Did that work out smashingly well for Europe the last time?
Russia started it, remember?
.
So you’re good with WWIII then?
Did he say that?
Sure seems like he didn’t particularly care. Because “Russia started it, remember.” Let’s hope he’s not in the state department.
Nobody is ‘good with’ WWIII, DSHornet simply pointed out that you are incorrect in saying Ukraine is starting it. Russia started this, and if it turns into WWIII, that’s on Russia, not Ukraine.
Then don’t escalate things. This attack has little effect on the tactical situation in Ukraine.
These items, deliberately exposed and revealed to comply with the SALT talks updated by Barack Obama, are strategic nuclear weapons. If the US had any involvement, we are guilty of breaking the Treaty.
And now, Russia will be forced into massive retaliation. We should know in a day or two what they plan to do.
I’m sure if something larger is triggered that will make everyone feel soooo much better.
fjb started it by assuring Z that the usa would protect them
the real question is why would fjb want another war while he was at the helm?
$$$ for his stocks?
business partners?
hunter payback /cover ups?
And Zelenskyy has to keep it going or else he’s out at the next Ukrainian presidential election.
Not exactly.
So having been attacked, Ukraine should just surrender. Okay. Got it,
More like ‘having allowed themselves to be used as a cats paw by the neocons/globalist interests to offer provocation to their larger neighbor Russia by the deliberate ‘oppression’ of the ethnic Russian/Russian Speaking and largely pro Russian population in the Donbas’ and after ignoring many warnings from Russia were eventually attacked’ The conflict didn’t begin in ’21 or in ’14 but much further back in the history of the region that shaped Russia and Ukraine.
Russia today ain’t the USSR, the cold war and the organizing purpose of NATO ended more than three decades ago. Some folks can’t seem to accept that fact. That doesn’t make Russia the ‘good guys’. There ain’t any ‘good guys’ in this conflict between two Eastern European tyrants.
Ukraine is gonna lose. Ukraine will have less territory a much smaller GDP and a far smaller population than at the beginning of this series of provocations and military actions leading to a full scale war. They should probably have delayed this strike until after digesting the tenor and scope of the peace talks this weekend. While admittedly a brilliant operation it sends a pretty clear message that Ukraine isn’t approaching any negotiations for an end to the conflict in good faith. I very much doubt the end result will have been worth it for Ukraine.
You know it’s a good strategy. Send over a population say Mexicans into an adjacent country. Claim they are oppressed whether they are or not. Invade military to save them. Russia does this. China does it. In the past many Euros did it. Regardless it is still clear who is the invader.
As for Russia, Russia is Putin and Putin and his conservative supports seem to want to reconstitute the borders of the old USSR. Just consider the noises made towards the Balkans, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Moldavia, and of course Ukraine for starters.
You do understand that the ethnic Russian speakers in the Donbas are just as native to the Donbas as you and I are where we live? That Ukraine is of/was ‘Russia’ or at least the ‘Rus’ before the Czars? The problem facing Ukraine is that it is a historical fiction with many neighbors claiming ownership of some or all of it at one time or another. There’s no historical ‘Ukraine’ wholly independent of its more powerful neighbors. Poland used to kick the butt of the ‘Rus’/Princes of Kiev on a regular basis.
I am sure Russia would love to control all those Nations. They don’t have the heft to make it happen today, won’t have the heft to do it on any timeline where those alive today.see it and very importantly they know it. Russian expansion into Europe is a neocon fever dream; they lack the population to support an army the size it would take to do it and the economic power and the industrial capacity… then there’s the not insignificant possibility of China will shank them from the East/South if Russia sent such a force westward into Europe they wouldn’t have much more than traffic cops left in the East to stop a.Chinese invasion.
As a Jew I don’t care for either Russia or Ukraine. They are both slavic and slavs hate Jews and badly treated including all of my ancestors. As I’ve said many times I’m happy when they are bleeding each other and if I were an arms dealer I’d happily sell arms to both sides so they could better do so,
Still, Russia did “promise” to guarantee Ukraine’s borders if they gave up their nuclear weapons. They did and Russia didn’t. Either treaties or promises mean something or they don’t generally. Generally they mean something to Russia until they don’t.
In general the world is pretty selective about its outrage. Most don’t care about Tibet or Hong Kong. Many don’t care about Crimea and the eastern Ukraine provinces. Some cared about Kuwait. Everyone seems to care about the West Bank and Gaza although the arabs living there are recent arrivals, settlers, and evil colonists for other lands. Pretty selective I’d say.
I’d meddle in Ukraine enough to cause Russia headaches like we meddled in Afghanistan. I wouldn’t send troops, too many arms, or manpower. I wouldn’t even send advisors. It’s a European problem. Let Europe handle it. Like I’ve said before I’d like the US out of Nato and concentrating instead on our hemisphere (keeping China out) and the Pacific Rim. Europe is big enough now, wealthy enough, populated enough, and technology sophisticated enough to deal with their own issues without counting on US to bail them out yet again.
Russia started this war
Obama and Brandon started this war.
The State Department told the Chinese that Ukraine was being allowed into NATO. They knew the Chinese would tell the Russians and Putin would invade.
Under what conditions do you believe a country that is attacked by another is allowed to defend itself?
Is Ukraine supposed to sit there and just allow Russia to take over its territory, in the name of “world peace?”
Appeasement of totalitarian bullies never leads to anything good. WWII should have taught you that lesson.
One can fairly criticize Ukrainian leadership and the nature of U.S. aid, but, Ukraine is allowed to defend itself and its territory.
So, do you believe that Ukraine started the war by invading Russia?
How about WE ask the questions for once, Dickweed?
How do YOU believe the war started? I want you to go back at least a few years and provide some additional historical perspective.
Less comfortable, Vlad?
Putin is outraged by this violent attack offending national sovereignty.
Those were the very planes that were being used to bomb Ukraine. So it will be interesting to see what they to respond.
The normal way to get past air defense is to overwhelm the defense with numbers. It will be difficult to do this with cruise drones, because Ukraine has shown some ability to spoof GPS and the like.
Yeah interesting. Wouldn’t tactical nukes be so interesting. WWIII is such fun. We should have done this earlier. What is with some? Did they love Dr. Strangelove so much that they want a sequel, this time for real?
Russia kills civilians while Ukraine hits legitimate military targets.
All the while Zelenskyy uses press gangs to round up any Ukrainian citizens that look old enough to hold a weapon for him and his incompetent generals to feed to the slaughter. So yes, Zelenskyy kills civilians. His own citizens.
No, they weren’t. They’re strategic assets. Which makes this a questionable move and there’s no way they did this by themselves.
My first thought exactly. Who sold them this capability? I doubt they created it.
Rubbish. Ukraine was the innovative part of the Russian military. Helicopters are a Ukrainian invention. Their Von Braun was Ukrainian.
Ukraine pretty much invented this kind of drone warfare.
Yes, they were. These aircraft were definitely part of the war effort against Ukraine. The days of needing to be directly overhead of the target to drop ordinance are long gone. These were long range missile platforms capable of launching from beyond air defense range.
An ordinance is a decree; ordnance is military weaponry/equipment.
They are both, The planes were used to deliver cruise missile into Ukraine and also are part of Russias strategic bomber force. Our bombers also do double duty.
the difference between israel and the Ukes is that Israel can back up their brilliant pager move
while Z cant
Now let’s bring this home and I will blatantly steal an idea from another site. Replace the trucks with container ships lingering off our coast and our overseas bases such as Guam. Doesn’t look good does it? We don’t need a golden dome. What we need is a lower tech drone defense of our coasts and bases. Something cheap, fast, and reproducible. Something like Israel’s iran dome or technology similar.
BTW: This strategy would be useful against our carriers especially if it were combined with swarms of submersible drones,
For several different reasons I won’t get into, I’m far less worried about carrier protection, particularly in the open ocean, than I am about our critical air assets sitting in unhardened bunkers (or entirely out in the open) on bases in CONUS. That’s a gigantic problem. Carriers while in littoral waters or while in port are equally exposed.
I forget how many carriers are deployed at a time. Something like half? The rest are undergoing repairs and replenishment. The old ones sometimes have to be refueled. The new Ford carriers I don’t think have to be.
You’re correct out air assets aren’t in hardened bunkers. I’ve read about that too. Big problem in the coast. Not so much if inland.
Large coastal cities are especially vulnerable.
In any event everyone at the moment is vulnerable to drone swarms and everyone seems to be researching them and defensive measurers.
The future of warfare
for now. until the next future.
Trump needs to walk away
Nobody is being homiest, Lindsey lightfoot was there 2 days ago along with ex CIA head, ex Trump administration form 2016 and called out by Trump, Pompeo
There won’t be a WW3 if America refuses to participate
There won’t be a WW3 if NATO doesn’t provide troops or long distance missiles. If it does than all bets are off and we could very well see an escalation into WW3,
Ukraine successfully attacking into Russia could also trigger WW3. There are probably many scenarios that could trigger WW3.
Russia can slaughter civilians and invade another country but if they fight back then “all bets are off”.
Crazy/
Yes it is crazy but Russia is playing by Russian rules.
NATO doesn’t have an army and missiles without America
Wrong. It does have an army and tanks and planes and aircraft carriers and nuclear subs and missiles and nuclear weapons. It is not as large or as capable without the US of course.
We saw NATO minus the US when Hillary tried to “wag the dog” by overthrowing the dictatorship in Libya. Obama wasn’t on board, so it became a NATO mission without any US participation.
Within three days, the very limited air (only) campaign against Libya ground to a halt due to lack of munitions. They then begged O to bail them out and we got the infamous “leading from behind” nonsense where the US made NATO’s mission possible by providing pretty much everything.
Putin needs to walk away. Then there can be peace
Or Zelensky could put the nest interest of his Nation ahead of his grift, graft, corruption and personal ego to accept that he ain’t gonna return to the status quo territorial lines before all.this. Russia is only gonna gain more territory as.this keeps going they ain’t gonna give up what they are capturing in the Donbas and sure.as heck ain’t giving up Crimea. Anyone holding out for return of Russian occupied territory in Donbas or Crimea as part of an armistice is loony.
“….of those involved in the terror attacks were detained,”
It’s not a terror attack. It’s a war where Russia has largely avoided being attacked at home.
Nonsense. This was just the most recent and most effective attack of this kind. Ukraine has been doing this all along.
I was unaware that large portions of Russia were piles of rubble like Ukraine.
It took them 18 months to set this strike up.
I wonder what else Z-man has up his sleeve.
Heard he was taking more piano lessons.
I wonder how long it will take him to sew a new sleeve.
Until then, good luck.
So how do you know it was Ukraine? Maybe Russia did it? Question is why before talks. If Russian set up, it could be an excuse to let loose on Ukraine and finish the job. I say give it 24 hr and see. Remember the Russian pipeline?
Sorry this is not even close to being equal to the pagers.
More like TET.
No it was not Russia. Most of the planes destroyed are not replaceable and they are part of the Russian nuclear bomber fleet. They wouldn’t destroy them in a false flag op.
The US had better wake up after this attack because it shows how easy it is to plant drones almost anywhere to be remotely activated. Couple this with China’s hacking of almost every vital resource in America, and you could have a crippling attack without one missile or plane entering our borders. The highly touted Gold Dome would be useless. We also know there are hundreds if not thousands of Muslim cells waiting to be activated. The Ukraine War has shown how cheaply and easily a country can be crippled.
Best post on this board.
Ben, you write that this is a war defined by high tech weapons; that may be true for Russia, but the Ukrainians are defining low tech success.
Our military is slow and obese regarding ESTABLISHED war, I don’t think it is configured, nimble enough, bright enough, thoughtful enough, to keep up with the changes in warfare. Couple that with an even slower, ponderous government structure and a party labeling EVERY reasonable step as ‘fascism’. These strikes will easily be done in our country, by members of the 20M we have let slip in.
Every country always ends up fighting the last war. However, you always fight the current war with what you’ve got. That;s all you can do.
Russia may just go nuclear
Innovative suicide.
Were I a Ukrainian, I’d be hunting down zipperhead.
He is going to get them all killed.