Operation Spider’s Web: Ukraine’s Devastating Drone Attack on Russia’s Long-Range Aircraft

It was a lazy Sunday morning in Russia on 1 June 2025. The war with Ukraine had been going for over three years. That morning 117 Ukrainian drones rose up from the back of four trucks deep inside Russia itself and started flying towards their targets – a number of Russian airbases. They were Ukrainian made Osa (‘Wasp’) quadcopters. They were packed in crates of around twenty-seven drones each and driven across the country in the back of cargo trucks. The unsuspecting Russian truck drivers thought they were delivering materials for pre-fabricated houses. Instead, several of the drivers were asked to pull over at a local gas station or parking lot, and then suddenly the cover of the cargo container came off and more than two dozen drones took off towards a nearby air base. The Russian drivers were taken completely by surprise. The drones then attacked the Russian bombers at four air bases across the vast expanse of Russia, from a base above the arctic circle near Murmansk, to the heart of European Russia, out to the middle of Siberia, near Lake Baikal. Large old Russian strategic bombers, like Tu-95s and Tu-22s came under attack, along with Russia’s valuable Airborne Early Warning and Control Beriat A-50s. Maybe two dozen planes were attacked by the drones on three of the airfields, and it appears that over a dozen were destroyed. This attack stunned Russia, as this was their strategic bomber force. Not only was it being used to regularly strike at Ukrainian infrastructure and cities, but these were the nuclear-capable strategic bombers that were an important part of their Strategic Deterrent Forces. Some Russians, in shock, equated it to a Russian Pearl Harbor. This book explores the full story of a covert attack that has changed the rules of military warfare forever.