Ukraine has conducted its biggest drone strike since Russia’s military invasion began, reportedly striking around 40 Russian warplanes across four military bases.
Operation Spiderweb was being prepared over the past year and a half and was overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, sources at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.
The operation is believed to have dealt a major blow to aircraft used by Moscow to launch long-range missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The drone strikes were carried out ahead of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, scheduled to take place in Istanbul on Monday.
Zelensky said a delegation headed by Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov will be going to Turkey with the main aim of securing a “complete and unconditional ceasefire”.
Meanwhile, Russian media reported that a Russia’s delegation has already departed for the talks.
Here, The i Paper takes a closer look at how Ukraine’s pivotal operation was planned and executed.
Security sources have claimed the SBU initially smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones into Russia, followed by mobile wooden cabins.
Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of the wooden containers, which had been placed on to trucks, the sources said.
The trucks were then parked near the military bases targeted in the operation.
Ahead of the attack, the roofs of the containers were remotely opened, allowing the drones to take off and strike the airbases.
The operation, codenamed Spiderweb, took place ahead of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey (Photo: SBU)Russia’s TASS news agency reported that the driver of one of the trucks believed to be involved in the attacks has been detained and will be questioned by police.
Russia’s defence ministry condemned Ukraine’s operation as a “terrorist attack” in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur.
The ministry said on Telegram that all of the attacks were “repelled”.
“As a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several pieces of aviation equipment caught fire,” the ministry said.
The fires have now been extinguished, it added.
Could Russia respond with nuclear weapons?
Ukraine estimates the damage caused by the attacks at over $2bn (£1.5bn).
Among targets struck in the attacks were TU-95’s, the large strategic bomber known as Bear, TU-22M3s, supersonic long-range bombers, and A-50 early warning and control aircraft.
The aircraft are all nuclear-capable bombers.
Stephen Hall, lecturer in Russian and post-Soviet politics at the University of Bath, told The i Paper that striking Russia’s nuclear-capable bombers would technically allow it to respond using nuclear weapons.
“It technically does mean that, because these are nuclear-capable carrying aircraft, this comes under what Russia considers an attack that justifies the use of nuclear weapons.
“The Russian nuclear doctrine is… incredibly vague, because that gives the regime leeway as to what it wants to do, but I suspect that Russia will not resort to using nuclear weapons, because this would isolate them even further.
“They have done well in maintaining support from India, China and the global south, but the use of nuclear weapons against a non-nuclear power could destroy that support its managed to garner.”
What does it mean for peace talks?
Operation Spiderweb was carried out ahead of a second round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Turkey.
Russia’s delegation has already set off for Istanbul ahead of the talks, according to Russian news agency RIA.
Zelensky confirmed on Sunday morning that a Ukrainian delegation headed by defence minister Rustem Umerov will also attend the talks.
The meetings between the two delegations is scheduled to go ahead as planned, despite the far-reaching strikes carried out by Kyiv.
Professor Hall said the strikes could be a way to show Donald Trump’s administration, which spearheaded the talks, “that they should start backing the right horse in this war”.
“Trump doesn’t like losers, so it could be a way of showing him the Russians are weak.
“It could also be a way of showing how weak Russia is to the Russian society.”
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