Ukraine’s President Zelensky is spiking the football, and poking the Russian bear (or rather jabbing it pretty hard), as he issued a statement calling Sunday’s massive drone attack on Russian territory which destroyed strategic bombers “an absolutely brilliant result”.
He described that the attack happened “One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation.” The Ukrainians are calling it ‘Operation Spider’s Web’.
Indeed there are reports of the operation’s reach going very far north…
Russia’s military has since issued official statement confirming the scope of the massive drone swarm strikes:
Military airfields across Russia have been attacked in a series of kamikaze drone strikes, the country’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday, blaming the incidents on Kiev. Most of the strikes were successfully repelled, with some resulting in material damage, it added.
Airfields were targeted in the Murmansk Region in the country’s north, in Ivanovo and Ryazan regions in central Russia as well as in Irkutsk Region in Siberia and Amur Region in the Far East, the ministry said. All the attacks employed first-person view (PFV) kamikaze drones, with some of them being launched from territories in close proximity to the airfields, it stated.
Some of the culprits behind the attacks have been detained, the ministry said, without revealing the number of those arrested or their identities. The Russian military also said that the “Kiev regime” was ultimately responsible for the strikes, which they described as “terrorist attacks.”
Meanwhile, Washington still feigning ignorance of planning stage of attack…
Update (Sunday 1240ET):
On Sunday, the Russian Ministry of Defense issued an official statement that a coordinated Ukrainian drone swarm attack targeted and damaged military aircraft across several airbases located deep within Russian territory.
Affected airfields reportedly include:
- Murmansk Oblast
- Irkutsk Oblast
- Ivanovo Oblast
- Ryazan Oblast
- Amur Oblast
Multiple U.S. media outlets—including Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, and CBS News—have independently confirmed the Ukrainian drone swarm operation targeted and destroyed approximately 40 Russian military aircraft across four airbases.
According to Ukrainian intelligence officials cited by CBS News, the aircraft destroyed include Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers, which play a central role in Russia’s strategic and nuclear-capable long-range aviation forces.
The Military Balance+, a database maintained by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, indicated that Russia had a fleet of 54 Tu-22M3s and 58 Tu-95MS bombers before the attack. It remains unclear how many of these long-range bombers were destroyed.
A Ukrainian security official told the Associated Press that planning for the attack took about 1.5 years and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
While White House spokespeople didn’t provide a comment to CBS on the attack, administration sources told the outlet that the Trump administration was not aware of it beforehand.
However…
Latest headlines:
- RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY ACCUSES UKRAINE OF TERROR ATTACK: IFX
- RUSSIAN DEFMIN SAYS UKRAINE USED DRONES AGAINST AIRFIELDS: IFX
- RUSSIA SAYS SEVERAL PLANES CAUGHT FIRE AFTER DRONE ATTACK: IFX
- RUSSIA SAYS NO CIVILIAN OR MILITARY CASUALTIES IN ATTACK: TASS
Odds of nuclear weapon detonation (view Polymarket)…
Nothing like starting the morning with a cup of coffee and watching the Ukraine war inch closer towards major escalation.
Additional headline from earlier:
And does this mean Russia pulls out of [Monday’s] peace talks?
Open-source footage circulating on X depicts a coordinated Ukrainian drone swarm targeting Russian long-range strategic bombers—aircraft capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear payloads—deep within Russian territory.
The scale, precision, and depth of the drone swarm attack on multiple Russian airfields have led some military observers to describe the operation as a “Russian Pearl Harbor.”
Bloomberg reports that over 40 strategic bombers—including Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 aircraft—were damaged in a Ukrainian drone swarm attack on multiple airbases, including the Belaya military base, located deep in eastern Siberia.
Here’s more color on the Ukrainian offensive deep within Russia via Bloomberg:
Ukraine’s Security Service chief Vasyl Malyuk led the operation and losses assessed to be around $2 billion, the official said. Ukrainian drones on Sunday attacked a military base near the settlement of Sredniy, Igor Kobzev, the governor for the Irkutsk region that’s some 5,190 km (3,220 miles) from Moscow, said in a Telegram statement. He didn’t specify the scope of the damage. The settlement of Sredniy is in the immediate vicinity of the Belaya military base.
Russian Telegram channels also published unverified reports of a drone attack near the town of Olenegorsk, around 1,840 km from Moscow. The Olenya aviation base is located near Olenegorsk.
Bloomberg couldn’t independently verify reports of large- scale damage to the Russian military bases. Kremlin spokesman Dimitry Peskov didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
X user Visegrád 24 reports that drone swarm attacks targeted four Russian airfields.
Open-source video footage shared by conflict monitor OSINTtechnical on X appears to show a coordinated Ukrainian drone swarm launched from heavily modified shipping containers on a trailer near Russia’s Belaya Airbase.
Afterwards, the Ukrainian launch truck self-destructed. https://t.co/aCaeDOPlBY pic.twitter.com/q5OdkM5A33
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 1, 2025
More footage—transmitted via video link from the kamikaze drones—captures multiple strikes on long-range Russian bombers, reportedly resulting in significant damage. Social media accounts claim the attacks targeted both the Belaya and Olenya Airbases.
According to X user Insider Paper, Russian military bloggers have likened the scale and impact of the strike to a “Russian Pearl Harbor,” underscoring that a dramatic escalation by Russia in the war in Ukraine could be imminent.
To note, this attack deep within Russia comes just a day before Moscow and Kyiv prepare to send delegations to Turkey for the second round of peace talks.