Ukraine's Drone Attacks on Russian Airfields -- One for the History Books

 

The head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasyl Malyuk, studies a map of one of the targets of Sunday's operation. Ukrainian Security Service / via AP 

"The enemy thought that it could bomb Ukraine and kill Ukrainians with impunity and endlessly."

"But this is not so. We will respond to Russian terror and destroy the enemy everywhere."

Lt.-Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, SBU

 

"This operation completely changes the perception of reality -- both within Russia and around the world. Our enemies are now forced to recognize that Ukrainian intelligence services are capable of penetrating even the most secure facilities."

"When the enemy loses dozens of strategic bombers, it's not just a technical loss; it's a blow to its ability to blackmail the world with missile strikes."

Ukrainian lawmaker Roman Kostenko

 

"The smartest thing Putin could do right now would be to not respond immediately."

"Putin's best response is to delay his response -- which he is good at."

"Putin does not have many spectacular 'good' moves in the current situation. Ukraine has no comparable facilities that can be destroyed without infernal civilian casualties and enormous damage to the environment ... which would traumatize the already troubled Trump." 

Vladimir Pastukhov, Russian political scientist, London 

A serviceman from the mobile air defence unit of the 115th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a Browning machine gun towards a Russian drone during an overnight shift, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv Region, Ukraine June 2, 2025.

Sofiia Gatilova, Reuters

 

 Ukraine's internal security service spent a year-and-a-half planning an assault on Russian airfields, an enterprise that was as audacious as it was spectacularly successful. The plan was to get drones into Russia and plant them close to key military runways. On the eve of a new round of peace talks Sunday, the signal to carry out the assault was lit and four unsuspecting Russian military bases were targeted -- remotely activated roofs lifted off mobile homes and sheds that had been parked on flatbed trucks.

 

The result saw armed Ukrainian drones soar, then land on military aircraft lined up on the runways, many of them engulfed in flames. At least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed, dozens of others damaged, shocking Russia as the attack reduced its capability to threaten nuclear attacks or to launch missile strikes on Ukraine. The event was a crucial jolt to Moscow and a reminder to Ukraine's Western partners that although outmanned and outgunned, Kyiv is eminently capable of exploiting Russia's weaknesses, disrupting its war plans.  

 

A Ukrainian drone purportedly strikes Russian planes deep in Russian territory in an image from video released Sunday by a source in the Ukrainian Security Service. Source in the Ukrainian Security Service / via AP 

"[The attack was] a direct and highly sensitive blow to the nuclear triad [that destroyed] rare and expensive bombers."

"Most importantly, it reduced the Russian Air Force's ability to strike Ukrainian cities."

Yan Matveyev, military analyst, Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation  

The destroyed and damaged planes, some of which were nuclear capable, included A-50, Tu-95, Tu-22 M3, and Tu-160 planes that Russia had used, according to Kyiv, nearly nightly to bomb Ukraine. Video footage published on social media, eliciting reactions, demonstrated that in Russia the drone strikes had stirred panic, confusion and rage from Russian pro-war commentators, some of whom called the attack "Russia's Pearl Harbor".

 

A young Russian soldier stationed at another airbase, posted videos of several aircraft burning. Furious chief Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov demanded that the young soldier be shot for filming the video, calling him a 'scumbag'. 

 

The SBU, the Ukrainian security agency that had planned the strikes took public credit for them in Kyiv, revealing the operation's code name as Spiderweb. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted photos of himself hugging the agency head, Lt.-Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, in a celebration of congratulation for a spectacular work well done. 

 

Ukraine had transferred its Tupolev bombers to Moscow -- explained former Ukrainian defence minister Oleksii Reznikov -- part of its 1996 agreement to surrender its nuclear capabilities in exchange for security guarantees from several countries, Russia included. "On June 1, 2025, Ukraine began removing those very aircraft from one of the memorandum's main guarantors. That guarantor had shamelessly used them against peaceful Ukrainians." Sunday's attack was "a peculiar form of military-legal sanctions".

 

Russian outlet Agentsvo, Russian state broadcasters Channel One and Rossiya 1 each devoted a total of 40 seconds' airtime to the attack on distant Russian airbases. The news of the event was completely absent by next morning from news bulletins. Mikhail Zvinchuk, a pro-Kremlin military blogger observed that the attack would be the cause of "substantial moral and psychological damage"; Ukraine's operation not only aimed to exploit gaps in Russian defence but also "creating colossal tension" in society while discrediting the security services. 

 

Which seems like a fair enough exchange -- given that Moscow through its endless attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, civilian targets including hospitals, targeting of civilian areas with deliberate intent, creating instability and fear like any terrorist attacks would to demoralize the public in an effort to turn it against their own government -- making it a timely and well-deserved  turn-about of affairs, giving Russia and its population a graphic idea of what they have been imposing on Ukraine and Ukrainians.

 

Zvinchuk speculated that if Ukraine could attack airbases it could also attack highways and transport routes, stirring panic. But that kind of methodology leading to charges of war crimes is a specialty of Russia, not Ukraine. "Of course, from the point of view of undermining Russia's military potential, this is an extremely unpleasant story, especially in the context of the loss of the Tu-95Ms (Russia's fleet of nuclear bombers)."

 

Kyiv’s secret service stashed the attack drones inside the roofs of the sheds, which were loaded onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases. AP

"[The attack provided] an immense inspirational push for Ukrainian society and soldiers [that may inspire more resistance to compromise that could lead to a real ceasefire]." 

"We're less likely to compromise in the nearest future. And some form of a compromise seems to be the only way to stop [or] pause the war."

"[Still, the attack dramatically improved the SBU's reputation and] deserves to be described in history books."

Former Ukrainian official, speaking anonymously 

Boasts, Bitterness and Battle

 

"The tough battle for the Donetsk region continues. The battle for Bakhmut and Soledar, for Kreminna, for other towns and villages in the east of our country continues."

"Although the enemy has concentrated its greatest forces in this direction, our troops – the Armed Forces of Ukraine, all defence and security forces – are defending the state."

"They are already fighting among themselves over who should be credited with some tactical advance."

 "It’s a clear signal of failure for the enemy. And it’s another incentive for all of us to put more pressure on the occupier and to inflict heavier losses on the enemy."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

Ukrainian soldiers firing a 152-mm howitzer into the Russian-held town of Pisky, in the Donetsk region, on Monday.  Credit...Nicole Tung for The New York Times

"The capture of Soledar was made possible by the constant bombardment of the enemy by assault and army aviation, missile forces and artillery of a grouping of Russian forces."

"[The operation in Soledar was carried out by] a heterogeneous group of troops  [but] the direct assault on the residential areas of Soledar … was successfully carried out thanks to the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of Wagner’s assault squads."

Russian Defence Ministry

 

"[Attempts to] steal victory [from his mercenaries in the town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine, another sign of growing tensions in Russia’s military ranks]."

"They are constantly trying to steal victory from the Wagner PMC [Private Military Company] and talk about the presence of the unknown, only to belittle their merits."

Paramilitary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group

 

"Last night artillery fire was like from hell, both sides."

"From what I know, our boys have managed to exit some parts [of Soledar] in an orderly manner and now [assault] groups are counterattacking, but we still hold the town [of Soledar]."

Ukrainian officer

The Wagner group proudly announces that it  has single-handedly captured the town of Soledar, under fire for months by the Russian military but now falling to them. Russia's military is outraged and counters that assertion, claiming it was Russian troops and artillery that managed to capture the town, a nondescript, now completely destroyed town most of its inhabitants have long left. Corpses of both Ukrainian defenders and Russian attackers litter the streets.

 

For the Russian military the claim to have succeeded in routing the Ukrainian defences and capturing the town represents a rare victory in a scene of extended conflict where Russia has suffered one indignity after another from the successes of the Ukrainian counterattacks. Ignominious failure does not suit Moscow, nor President Putin who days earlier replaced the leading Russian commander with another as though the shuffle would usher in badly needed victories.

 

Kyiv, however, denies that the strategic salt-mining town is in the hands of its enemies. The town's capture, if confirmed has a good measure of importance to Moscow; not only representing a rare win after a series of major battlefield setbacks, but it would also cut off access for the Ukrainian military in resupply routes.

 

The town's seizure would allow Russia to cut off Ukrainian supply routes to the larger city located nearby of Bakhmut where another raging conflict, heavy in casualties on both sides has been months in the making. Ukrainian troops remaining in embattled Bakhmut would be vulnerable to capture by Russian troops. 

 

"Our units are there, the town is not under Russian control" insisted Serhiy Cherevatyl, Ukraine's Eastern military command spokesperson. According to CNN, a reporting team located just outside the town heard mortar and rocket fire Friday afternoon, and witnessed the ferrying of troops by Ukrainian forces in an organized pullback. Russians had not, however, fully taken the town, as claimed. 

Over 500 civilians, among them fifteen children, remain trapped inside Soledar. An overnight video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked two units in Soledar that were "holding their positions and inflicting significant losses on the enemy".