New Delhi: Ukraine’s most audacious operation till date against Russia was the result of over one and a half years of planning—personally supervised by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy—and targeted five key Russian military airbases. Experts say it has now “rewritten” the rules of the war and is Russia’s Pearl Harbor moment.
Codenamed Spiderweb, Ukraine, in a spectacular mission, managed to smuggle 34 Ukrainian drones into Russian territory, inside trucks and hidden beneath the roofs of houses. The sites were then remotely opened, allowing the drones to fly up and attack targets.
Post the operation, Zelenskyy wasted no time in describing the operation as “brilliant” and one that was “entirely justified”.
“In total, 117 drones were used in the operation with a corresponding number of drone operators involved. About 34% of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit,” Zelenskyy wrote in a series of posts on X on Sunday.
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.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 1, 2025
The timing of the operation just a day before scheduled peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul signals a sharp escalation in the Ukrainian campaign to strike at the heart of Russia’s military infrastructure. It also comes amid rising concerns in Kyiv over intelligence reports suggesting Russia is preparing a new wave of large-scale attacks.
In another revelation, Zelenskyy said the headquarters for the operation on Russian soil had been established “directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions”. The FSB, Russia’s federal security agency and successor to the Soviet KGB, is headquartered in Moscow’s Lubyanka Square and reports directly to President Vladimir Putin.
Russia’s defence ministry acknowledged that “several aircraft caught fire” following drone attacks on air bases in Murmansk and Irkutsk, in the Russian Arctic and eastern Siberia. It said the fires were contained and reported no casualties. According to Russian state media, several suspects were arrested in connection with the attacks, including a truck driver allegedly involved in launching one of the drones.
TASS news agency, citing the Russian defence ministry, reported, “The Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using FPV drones on airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. All terrorist attacks on military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions were successfully foiled. There were no reports of casualties among military personnel or civilians. Some individuals involved in the terrorist attacks have been detained. In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, several aircraft caught fire due to FPV drone attacks near military airfields. The fires have been extinguished.”
Kyiv’s account was, however, different. Zelenskyy praised the SBU and its chief, General Vasyl Maliuk, and said that operatives involved in the planning and execution of the strikes had been safely withdrawn from Russian territory ahead of the attacks.
“It’s genuinely satisfying when something I authorized a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation. We will continue this work,” he wrote on X.
“The fact that Ukraine was able to damage or destroy such a large number of Russia’s most advanced aircraft deep inside the country reflects the development of its deep-strike programme, as well as the remarkable extent to which Ukraine’s undercover operatives are now able to work inside Russia,” the New York Times wrote in its article calling it “among the most important raiding actions in modern warfare”.
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Drone attacks a day before peace talks
“Last night, there were nearly 500 Russian attack drones,” Zelenskyy said in his posts on X. “Each week, they increase the number of units used per strike. Now, they have also prepared Kalibr missiles launched from naval carriers.”
The Ukrainian president also reiterated that Kyiv remains open to a ceasefire, citing a US-backed proposal that has been on the table since 11 March. He accused the Kremlin of rejecting diplomacy and choosing instead to prolong a war that has devastated cities.
“It was the Russians who chose to continue the war. Even under conditions where the entire world is calling for an end to the killing, pressure is truly needed, pressure on Russia that should bring it back to reality,” Zelenskyy said.
He called for continued and coordinated efforts from Ukraine’s allies—through sanctions, diplomacy, and military aid—to push Moscow toward de-escalation.
Putin is dragging out peace negotiations while laying the groundwork for a renewed military offensive in Ukraine, two senior US senators alleged Sunday, according to an Associated Press report. The initial round of peace talks on 16 May resulted in the largest prisoner exchange of the conflict but offered little else—no indication of a ceasefire or substantive progress—with both sides merely presenting their initial negotiating stances, Reuters reported.
Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) on Sunday claimed that its latest wave of drone strikes inflicted damages worth an estimated $7 billion on Russia’s strategic air fleet.
“$7 billion: This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of the SBU’s special operation,” the agency said in a post on Telegram.
The SBU said the coordinated operation damaged or destroyed 41 military aircraft, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers as well as the A-50 airborne radar and command planes, all of which are used in strikes against Ukrainian cities.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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