NewsGate Press Network

By Vineet Dikshit and M S Mahesh

In a spectacular and daring covert operation Ukraine pull-off a massive drone attack against Russia targeting five key airbases destroying almost 41 long range bombers.

The attack took place about as far as 6000 kilometres deep inside Russian territory from the nearest Ukrainian border post on Sunday the First of June 2025.

The Ukrainian attack took place hours before the peace talks could begun in Istanbul, Turkey between Russia and Ukraine.

The covert operation by Ukraine was code named “spider’s web”.

The destroyed bomber’s fleet included the likes of Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers that are frequently used by Russia to drop bombs over  cities in Ukraine.

One report has suggested that drones also took-out Russia’s only working A-50 trader detection and command aircraft.

The spectacular and daring part of the operation was – that it was carried out by small drones hidden in highway trucks that were smuggled into Russia and parked near these five airbases in Siberia.

Moscow has confirmed that five of its airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions were targeted by Kyiv using first-person-view (FPV) drones.

“The Kyiv regime staged a terror attack with the use of FPV drones on airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur Regions. All terror attacks on military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur Regions were repelled. No casualties were reported either among servicemen or civilians. Some of those involved in the terror attacks were detained,” Russia’s defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Moscow accepted that several of its aircraft “caught fire” in the attacks. “As a result of the launch of FPV drones from territories in close proximity to military airfields in the Murmansk and Irkutsk Regions, several aircraft caught fire. The fires were extinguished,” the statement said.

The operation “Spider’s web” was launched after the planning of over a year and a half, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as he hailed “brilliant” results from “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.

Zelensky said Ukraine deployed 117 drones in a massive attack, which hit “34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers” at the targeted airfields.

According to Ukrainian SBU sources, the planning of the operation required particularly complex logistics. Drones were smuggled into Russia in advance. They were concealed under the roofs of wooden cabins installed on trucks. At the time of the attack, the roof tops of these highway trucks were opened remotely and drones deployed not far from their targets.

Ukraine improvised drones that were attached with a good enough bomb to punch hole in the airframe of bombers that were parked alongside the tarmac at the Russian airbases.

By an estimate  – each drone was worth around 500 american dollars  – and price tag of each the Russian bomber that was destroyed was around 100 million dollars.

The Ukrainian claim however could not be independently verified.