Also had two bridges collapse near the Ukraine. Probably acts of successful sabotage. One went down with a freight train on it apparently.
Lots more reports and videos. Multiple airbases up to 4000 km from Ukrainian border.
Planning reported to be more than a year in advance.
Another video of takeoff from a disguised trailer.
Not content with sweeping the Russian fleet from the Black Sea, a report on attacks at the Northern fleet headquarters.
From the BBC
According to sources at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), “Operation Spider’s Web” took one year-and-a-half to organise and was personally overseen by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sources say the SBU’s first FPV drones into Russia, followed later by mobile wooden cabins.
Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which had been placed on to trucks. At the time of the attack, the roofs were remotely opened, allowing the drones to take off and hit the nearby airbases.
…
Ukraine estimates the damage caused by the attacks at over $2bn (£1.5bn).
What are those black tire-like things covering the wings of the bombers?
They are tyres. Supposed to confuse the enemy and disguise the plane.
Covering Aircraft With Tires Like Russia Confuses Weapons: US Military - Business Insider.
Measuring the damage done by this attack in cash value is misleading. Russia doesn’t have any production capacity for Tu-22 or Tu-95 strategic bombers, and it has just restarted production of Tu-160 but is only making a couple per year.
Googling about, the pre-Spiderweb strategic fleet numbers, based on what I can google, were
~27 Tu-22
~60 Tu-95
~20 Tu-160
Ukraine is claiming 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed. If accurate, that’s a huge portion of the Russian strategic bomber fleet.
This reminds me a bit of the story of Saint Olga.
Olga then led her army to Iskorosten (what is today Korosten), the city where her husband had been slain, and laid siege to the city. The siege lasted for a year without success, when Olga thought of a plan to trick the Drevlians. She sent them a message: “Why do you persist in holding out? All your cities have surrendered to me and submitted to tribute, so that the inhabitants now cultivate their fields and their lands in peace. But you had rather die of hunger, without submitting to tribute.” (line 6454).[22]
The Drevlians responded that they would submit to tribute, but that they were afraid she was still intent on avenging her husband. Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: “Give me three pigeons … and three sparrows from each house.”[22] The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked.
Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze. As the Primary Chronicle tells it: “There was not a house that was not consumed, and it was impossible to extinguish the flames, because all the houses caught fire at once.”[22] As the people fled the burning city, Olga ordered her soldiers to catch them, killing some of them and giving the others as slaves to her followers. She left the remnant to pay tribute.
Weren’t there just two A-50s left after a third one was destroyed a couple years ago?
Russian logistics is going to be even more screwed than it is already if they have to treat every cargo truck like a potential attack platform…
Two Russian A-50s were lost in Feb 2024
Today makes at least three. Most sources say Russia had 7, but not all were operational.
Russia’s Air Force has to be hurting. The bombers are crucial for Russia’s Nuclear Capability.
Exactly. Attacks like this are far more devastating than just the immediate destruction. Ukraine could just send, say, a truck every couple of months, and cost Russia millions and more as well as shift resources from other fronts.
So where were the drones launched from? It looks like the nearest other country is Mongolia, which is still around a hundred miles away (and those don’t look like hundred-mile drones). Did they get the truck past border security into Russia itself? Was the crossing from Mongolia, or did they travel long distance within Russia? And did the drivers just flee back to the border (and which border) as soon as the truck was in position?
OK, a lot of that is probably classified, but I’m still curious. It sounds like a very complicated operation to pull off.
The reporting isn’t clear (probably intentionally so as you imply) but it seems like the drones got into Russia and were close to the airfields.
The reporting is that they actually hired Russian drivers to deliver the trailers to the appropriate sites, and the drivers didn’t know what was coming.
I really doubt that - you don’t entrust a mission of this importance to patsies; there are too many things that can go wrong. I’m sure the operatives who transported the drones had papers showing they were Russian drivers, though.
As to what happened to the drivers: other agents probably picked them up in civilian vehicles and drove them to safehouses. Russia is big. There are plenty of places to hide.
If I were in Ukrainian intelligence, I’d leak that they hired Russian drivers who knew exactly what was coming and didn’t care as long as they got paid. The resulting suspicions would throw further sand into Russian logistical gears.
They were launched from the roofs of trailers. A roof panel was blown off and the drones launched from parking lots/roadsides adjacent to the airfields. The drone used AI programming to search for targets. Ukraine used photos of Russian bombers in museums to train the drones. The operation was more than a year and a half in making. Drones were smuggled into Russia or an adjacent former republic. After programming, the were put in false roofs of trailers. The launches, videos, and coordination were probably through the cell phone system.
Read more at TWZ.com
There is a standalone thread and more in the current Bunker thread.
I see a movie eventually coming out.
The released photo of drones under the roofs of the containers is awesome. That’s some inspired planning.