Operation Spiderweb: Ukraine Strikes Russia's Strategic Bomber Fleet
Russian bombers parked in Siberia appeared protected by distance: some sat more than 4,000 kilometres from Ukraine. On June 1, 2025, small Ukrainian drones emerged from cargo vehicles nearby and attacked them on their own airfields.
Operation Spiderweb joined cheap aircraft to an expensive intelligence and logistics effort. Its significance did not depend on accepting Ukraine's highest initial damage estimate.
Bringing the Launch Site to Russia
Ukraine's Security Service, the SBU, said it had prepared the operation for about 18 months. Components and drones were moved into Russia, concealed beneath remotely opened roofs on trucks or prefabricated cargo structures, and positioned near military bases.
The operators did not need to fly a conventional long-range aircraft across thousands of kilometres of defended airspace. They moved the launch platform close to each target by road, then sent 117 first-person-view drones on the final short flight.
Ukraine said attacks were attempted against several bases across multiple time zones. The most visible damage occurred at Olenya in Murmansk region and Belaya in Irkutsk region, while Russian authorities also reported activity around bases in Ryazan and Ivanovo regions.
The Aircraft Targeted
Video showed drones approaching Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers, with fires spreading among parked aircraft. These Soviet-designed platforms had repeatedly launched Kh-101 and Kh-22-family missiles at Ukraine.
Ukraine also said A-50 airborne early-warning aircraft were among the targets. Public imagery did not confirm every claimed hit, and the success of an approach in drone video does not establish that the warhead detonated or destroyed the aircraft.
The bombers were valuable partly because Russia could not quickly manufacture replacements. Production lines for the older models had closed, so even repairable damage could remove scarce airframes for long periods and force surviving aircraft to disperse.
They also form part of Russia's nuclear-capable aviation, although aircraft on these missions were targeted for their conventional role in attacks on Ukraine. Striking dual-capable systems carried strategic signalling and escalation risks beyond the immediate damage.
How Many Were Lost?
The SBU initially said more than 40 aircraft had been hit, and Ukrainian officials later specified 41 damaged or destroyed. Satellite images and geolocated video confirmed multiple burned aircraft but could not support every element of that early total.
Two U.S. officials gave Reuters a lower assessment: as many as 20 aircraft hit and about 10 destroyed. That estimate was itself attributed to unnamed officials rather than a complete public damage survey.
The responsible conclusion is therefore a range, not a single certain figure. Ukraine inflicted substantial, independently visible damage; its claim exceeded the later U.S. estimate, while Russia's early effort to minimise losses was contradicted by imagery.
The Larger Lesson
Operation Spiderweb did not eliminate Russia's ability to launch long-range attacks. Surviving bombers, submarines, ground-based missiles, and growing fleets of one-way drones continued to threaten Ukraine.
It did expose a global military vulnerability. Aircraft worth hundreds of millions of dollars, parked in the open and protected for conventional air attack, could be reached by low-cost drones assembled and launched inside the defended country.
A CSIS analysis emphasised that organisational ingenuity, reconnaissance, and logistics mattered as much as the drones themselves. The operation was inexpensive at the point of impact, but not simple.
Spiderweb extended a pattern already visible in Ukraine's naval and long-range drone campaigns: rather than match Russia platform for platform, find a cheaper path to the vulnerable part of the system. On June 1, that vulnerable part was a row of irreplaceable bombers resting far from the war they had helped carry into Ukrainian cities.
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