Dozens of Russian military aircraft have been destroyed in an unprecedented Ukrainian drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia, Kyiv has said.
The so-called “Spider Web” operation, carried out by Ukraine’s SBU security service, saw drones smuggled thousands of kilometres into Russian territory using lorries, before they were unleashed to destroy more than 40 warplanes, the SBU said.
Russia confirmed that Ukraine attacked airfields across five regions, causing several aircraft to catch fire. “The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions, Murmansk and Irkutsk,” Moscow’s defence ministry said.
Vladimir Putin will be “infuriated” by the “unprecedented” attack if it is as damaging as Kyiv claims, Russia expert John Lough told The Independent, describing it as a “huge win” for Ukraine that will boost morale within the military.
“It’s an embarrassment [for Russia]. It’s just another humiliation at a moment where Putin is very keen to show the Americans in particular that Ukraine is losing, and [that] it’s only a matter of time before the Russians roll them over,” said Mr Lough, head of foreign policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre.
Around 18 months in the planning, Ukraine says operation “Spider Web” appears to have dealt a heavy blow to the aircraft used by Russian forces to launch long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers.
The attack came hours after Russian forces launched the biggest overnight air attack on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion three years ago, according to Kyiv’s air force, which said 472 drones and seven missiles were fired.
Volodymyr Zelensky also confirmed on Sunday that he would send a delegation for direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, despite Moscow’s refusal to heed Kyiv’s calls for it to provide a promised memorandum setting out its demands for a ceasefire before the talks. The talks will begin at 1300 local time [GMT 1000], a Turkish source said.
One of the Russian airbases struck by Ukraine in the Irkutsk region is more than 4,000km (2,485 miles) from the Ukrainian border, an SBU source told The Kyiv Independent.
“This is unprecedented. They haven’t been able to hit this number of aircraft on this scale, going to those regions of the country,” Mr Lough said. “To go out to east Siberia is absolutely phenomenal.”
Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst for the Black Bird Group, told The Independent that, if the scale of damage is verified, the attack is “really, really significant”.
Explosive-laden drones were hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds, which were then loaded onto trucks and driven to the perimeter of the air bases, according to a Ukrainian security official.
The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely-activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said.
The operation does not appear to have gone entirely to plan, Mr Kastehelmi said, explaining that it is “very likely” that one or two of the trucks carrying the drones into Russia exploded before they could reach their targets.
Meanwhile, seven people were killed and dozens injured after huge explosions caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, officials said on Sunday, without saying what had caused the blasts.
The first bridge, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, collapsed on top of a passenger train on Saturday, causing casualties. The train’s driver was among those killed, state-run Russian Railways said.
Hours later, officials said a second train derailed when the bridge beneath it collapsed in the nearby Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine.
Russia’s Investigative Committee, the country’s top criminal investigation agency, said explosions had caused the two bridges to collapse without giving more detail. Several hours later, it edited the statement to remove the words “explosions”, but did not explain why.
The committee said that it would be investigating the incidents as potential acts of terrorism.
