Ukraine claims it caused US$2 billion damage in a mass drone attack that destroyed Russia’s prized strategic bombers on airfields deep behind enemy lines.
The secret operation, carried out by Ukraine’s security service (SBU), targeted four airfields in what appears to be one of the most damaging and extensive drone strikes of the three-year war so far.
“Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia – this is the result of a special operation by the SBU,” said a source confirming the attacks.
Ukrainian security sources claimed 41 strategic aircraft, worth around US$2 billion ($3.3b), were hit in the operation, known as “Spiderweb”.
The mission, reportedly prepared for over a year and a half, was personally supervised by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and involved smuggling drones into Russia inside shipping containers with remote-controlled retractable roofs.
The simultaneous strikes on air bases took place on the eve of new direct peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow and came just hours after a wave of explosions hit Russian railways, derailing trains and killing at least seven passengers.
On Sunday morning, footage from the Belaya base in Siberia – ab out 4025km from the Ukrainian border – showed rows of Russian nuclear-capable bombers, reported to be Tu-22s and Tu-95s, burning.
At the Olenya air base, near Murmansk in the Arctic, explosions were followed by plumes of black smoke rising above the site.
Russia had moved its expensive bombers thousands of kilometres from the frontline to its far north and east to get them out of range of Ukraine’s drones.
At the same time, waves of drones targeted the Ivanovo air base, northeast of Moscow, and the Dyagilevo base, south of the capital. All the sites hit had been used to launch long-range strikes on Ukraine.
Lacking Russia’s arsenal of missiles, Kyiv has instead built up a large fleet of attack drones that regularly and successfully target military and oil facilities deep inside Russia.
“If you ever wanted to see Russia’s irreplaceable strategic number fleet destroyed, we got you covered,” Ukraine’s strategic communications wrote on X as the attacks were unfolding.
The strikes across Russia raise questions about the range at which Ukraine can carry out such sophisticated attacks.
Prominent Russian Telegram channels with links to Russian security services said the smuggled drones were launched from the back of trucks parked close to the targets.
Footage showed small first-person view (FPV) drones, carrying high explosives, leaving a large lorry close to Belaya airfield. The driver has been detained, although it is not clear if they were aware of the cargo.
Meanwhile, a large explosion, followed by secondary detonations, has also rocked the Russian Arctic city of Severomorsk, home to the main naval base of Russia’s Northern Fleet, which services nuclear-armed submarines. The damage is not yet clear.
The drone strikes followed a wave of bombings targeting Russian bridges and railway lines overnight in regions bordering Ukraine, and inside Ukrainian-occupied territory, in what the Kremlin called “acts of terrorism”.
Seven people died and scores were injured when a passenger train travelling to Moscow was derailed by a collapsed bridge in Bryansk, north of Kyiv.
In neighbouring Kursk, where Ukraine launched its major cross-border incursion last August before being forced out this year, a freight train was derailed by another fallen bridge.
Kyiv’s military intelligence agency also reported that a Russian military train had been blown up near Melitopol, while a Ukrainian partisan network claimed an attack on a Russian rail line in occupied Donetsk.
Acts of sabotage have become commonplace as the war in Ukraine has dragged on, but the scale and extent of the apparent bombings on Saturday night is unusual.
The attacks will be a major concern for the Kremlin, which has been frustrated by Ukraine’s ability to fight back.
A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers on Sunday and wounded more than 60 others, the Ukrainian army said.
Also on Sunday, Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched its largest drone attack of the war so far. The air force said 472 drones were launched over Ukraine with seven missiles, most of which were shot down.
Russia has dramatically stepped up the number of drones it launches over the past two weeks, despite growing frustration from the Trump administration that Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling peace efforts.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy finally confirmed that Kyiv would be participating in the second round of peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, despite Russia refusing Ukraine’s demands to provide documents on its negotiating position in advance.
Expectations for the meeting remain low, considering that Moscow has so far resisted pressure from the West to agree to a 30-day ceasefire and Putin has refused to back down on his maximalist demands.