Months of preparation, the drones introduced clandestinely in Russia and “Spider Web” for the code name: Ukrainian security services led an unprecedented coordinated operation against Russian military aviation, hitting thousands of kilometers from the front.
This is what we know about these attacks on the eve of the expected conversations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul.
• Significant damage according to Kyiv
Ukraine claims significant damage, impossible to verify independently. The attacks would have affected 41 aircraft used to “bombard Ukrainian cities,” provided a source in Ukraine security services (SBU), quoting in particular the TU-95 and TU-22 strategic bombers and the A-50 detection and command apparatus.
The Russian Ministry of Defense only confirmed that “several aerial devices caught fire” after an attack of drones in the airfields in the Mourmansk and Irkoutsk regions, respectively in the Russian Arctic and in the east of Siberia. These fires have been dominated and have not made victims, according to the Ministry.
Ukrainian security services have assured that they have destroyed 34% of strategic Russian cruise missile vectors, and damage the sum of $ 7 billion.
• The operation called “Spider Canvas”
This operation, on behalf of the “Spider Canvas” code, was prepared for more than a year and a half under the supervision of President Volodymyr Zelensky, according to the Ukrainian source. It required a particularly complex logistics.
Ukraine regularly takes off from the drones of their territory to achieve objectives in Russia, in response to the Russian invasion of 2022. The operational mode used this time is completely different.
The Ukrainian security source said the drones had been introduced clandestinely into Russia, and hidden in wooden structures placed in trucks.
Their roofs opened remotely, to allow FPV drones to fly to their goals. The photos, shared by the SBU, show many small black drones hidden in the false roofs of what looks like transport containers.
The Ministry of Russia has confirmed that drones had not been thrown from the Ukrainian territory, but “in the vicinity of airfields.” The agents were distributed in several Russian regions, according to Volodymyr Zelensky. He said that one of the places where they worked was “right next to us” in a Russian security services office (FSB).
Moscow said Sunday that he had arrested the suspects, even if Volodymyr Zelensky said that the people involved were “safe” and had left Russia the day before the operation.
• The deepest attack in the Russian territory
Ukraine has been able to reach regions located thousands of kilometers from the front, while their attacks generally focus on areas near their borders.
This is the “longest range” operation never directed by its services, welcome Volodymyr Zelensky.
Two of the airplanes that Ukraine says that he has played, those of Olfia and Belaïa, are approximately 1,900 and 4,300 kilometers of Ukraine respectively. The first is found in the Russian Arctic, the other in East Siberia.
The Russian ministry said it had managed to counteract other attacks, especially in the Russian East.
• Difficult consequences to estimate
The consequences of these attacks on Russian military capacities are difficult to estimate. Ukraine undergoes quasi-cuasiid air attacks, which have suffered their anti-aircraft defense. But Russia uses a lot of drones for this, not just missiles.
Russian military bloggers deplored a “dark day for the aviation” of their country and called to take revenge. The Telegram Rybar Channel, near the Russian army, estimated that “it is without exaggeration of a very hard blow”, denouncing “serious errors” of Russian special services.
The symbolic importance is in any important case for Ukraine, whose army continues upside down against more Russian troops. This is one of the most successful operations in its services since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
• A negotiation accelerator?
Volodymyr Zelensky judged that these actions should push Russia to “feel the need to stop war.”
Former President Petro Poroshenko, an opposition figure, estimated that “there were no better arguments” that were presented on the eve of conversations with Moscow in Istanbul.
Other officials, as well as simple Internet users, have resumed the recent comments of US President Donald Trump, who had estimated that Ukraine did not have “cards” to affirm negotiations.
One of the Ukrainian negotiators, Serguii Kyslysya, seemed to answer him by sharing an image of a game letter in X, a king, with the “king of gifts.”
Source: BFM TV
