UKRAINIAN drone operations destroyed over 40 Russian military aircraft deep inside Russian territory, marking one of the boldest drone assaults on Russian aviation to date.
The attacks targeted strategic bomber planes, including the A-50 early warning aircraft, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons and launching long-range missile attacks on Ukraine.
The Security Service of Ukraine announced Sunday, June 1, 2025, that the operation, codenamed “Web,” had destroyed 34 percent of Russia’s fleet of air missile carriers, with damages estimated at $7 billion. This claim could not be independently verified.
The drones were smuggled into Russia hidden inside mobile wooden cabins placed on trucks. They were transported thousands of kilometers into Russian territory before being remotely launched to strike airfields.
Airbases
Targeted airbases included Belaya in the Irkutsk region, over 4,000 kilometers from Ukraine, Olenya near Murmansk, Diaghilev in Ryazan, Ivanovo and others across five Russian regions.
The operation took approximately 18 months to plan and was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The attack caused significant damage, with fires reported on the airbases and destruction of dozens of bombers that Moscow uses to conduct missile strikes on Ukraine.
Russia confirmed the attacks, describing them as a “terrorist act.” Russian authorities stated that air defenses repelled assaults in some regions but not in Murmansk and Irkutsk.
The strike came just one day before a new round of direct peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul.
Turkish authorities announced Sunday that negotiations would resume Monday in Istanbul at 1 p.m. local time at the Ciragan Palace.
Ukraine sent a delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov to the talks. The two countries held their last round of direct talks on May 16 in Istanbul, which ended without a ceasefire agreement. / From the wires