The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) reported that the June 1 “Spider Web” drone operation caused approximately $7 billion in damages and disabled 34% of cruise missile bombers in key Russian airbases.
The agency confirmed that more details about the attack will be revealed later.
“And you thought Ukraine was easy? Ukraine is exceptional. Ukraine is unique. All the steamrollers of history have rolled over it. It has withstood every kind of trial. It is tempered by the highest degree. In today’s world, its value is beyond measure,” the SBU wrote, quoting Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko.
They also vowed to continue to drive Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory.
That’s more than 1/3rd of ALL of their aircraft, holy shit. This just makes it insanely difficult for Russia to save face. ANY truck could be holding hundreds of suicide drones deep into Russian territory. The Russian authorities are gonna be so paranoid they won’t be able to coordinate anything.
When you phrase losses of aircraft in percentages of your fleet, you’re talking about a disaster.
Yeah, but the wording is weird. “34% of cruise missile bombers in key Russian airbases”
Does that mean “34% of all Russian cruise missile bombers were destroyed by hitting those sitting in key Russian airbases” or does that mean “34% of the Russian cruise missile bombers that were currently present in these specific key Russian airbases were destroyed”?
That’s two very different statements with very different meanings.
The estimate is 130-140 aircraft existed in the entire fleet, so sounds like the former.
That’s good to hear. The former is big news, the second option would be not nearly as relevant.
Genuine question, what is the end game objectively do you think? Rdors Russia retreat unable to carry the war and then recoil into a depression economy? I seriously don’t see Ukraine slowing down at all. The longer this goes on it seems like Russia takes one step and Ukraine takes 1.2 steps forward.
Most likely ends when Putin loses the loyalty of the top brass and oligarchal mobsters. This attack goes a long way to having the question being asked, surely there has already been hushed tones, if this is the fight they want to ruin Russia for. They have been successful in terms of land gains, not to any great value - ~20% after 12 years is embarrassing. They have lost a lot of goodwill, marketability, economic growth not to mention brain drain, population etc., and they are now facing budget cuts because of oil prices.
Or Putin dies of natural causes. Which isn’t too farfetched. Then the oligarchs find themselves a Deng Xiaoping-like figure who says “ok, all that was bad, let’s do something else”.
Probably, Russia will have to face the facts that they can’t build their own fighter jets, bombers, tanks, or fighting ships larger than a destroyer anymore. Not on the scale they need. Even if you assume some of the designs they’re putting out are good (a big assumption), they can’t possibly build them at scale. China is sitting right over there with the factories for those things. Xi Jinping will be happy to take their check, but will make sure it clears first.
their ICBM fleet is poorly maintained - both land based and submarine launched; this event is a solid kick in the strategic nutsack.
SLAVA UKRAINE!
I very much hope Ukraine’s reported success is as good as they claim. Deleting 1/3 of the Russia’s bomber capacity against Ukraine is nice.
By every account I’ve read from both sides, seems pretty fucking successful.
Awesome.
“Dozens of long range bombers destroyed”
This moment in history is akin to the introduction of airplanes and aircraft carriers. It’s a whole paradigm shift. The future of war is drones. God help us if WW3 breaks out.
A few years before WWI, Russia had a disastrous war against the Japanese, whom they had considered an inferior, small opponent that would be defeated quickly.
Time is a flat circle.
Even if it wasn’t the 40 planes claimed, even if it’s only the 5 we saw in the video , this is huge. Now Russia has to move MORE anti air assets, and more men, to these airfields and away from the front. Some bombers will be moved farther away, reducing the pace of operations. And if they have to start building bunkers for their big bombers that’s tens of thousands of tons of concrete not going to buildings fortifications on the front lines. Not going to road repair. Not going to factories. And that’s thousands of workers not doing other, more productive things. The success of this operation cannot be overstated
they also hit vladivostok.
on the other side of the continent. all the way from europe to the end of asia.
SLAVA UKRAINE, goddamn
According to a Kyiv Independent SBU source, first-person-view (FPV) drones were covertly transported deep into Russian territory and hidden inside trucks before being launched against four major airfields.
Holy shit that’s embarrassing. I mean, those operatives are going to have to flee to Japan to in order to get home, but wow. That’s incredible.
Did they hit that city in the same operation? Care to share any sources?
lots of shit behind paywalls :|
TWZ has some excellent coverage of the event with nary a paywall.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/what-we-know-about-ukraines-mass-drone-assault-on-russian-bombers
TY!
tho no mention of vladivostok in that link, which I think was the purpose of the person I replied to
The more Ukraine do that, the less everyone else have to do it. Good.
Glory to our Ukranian HEROESSSS!!! 👑🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 Insane, utmost respect!!!
Just as well they didn’t let the US (AKA as Putin’s bitch) know about it beforehand
Oh yeah. The US leadership is filled with Russian assets and Putin playthings.
I don’t think it’s because Trump is a Russian asset which is why they haven’t told the White House, but because Ukrainians have had bad experience with their plans being leaked before. The 2022 Ukrainian offensive failed because the Russian knew they were coming, and everyone including the media and their mothers shouted it across the rooftops for weeks. Back then, I thought “isn’t this a bad idea to report it on the media”? But then I am an armchair analyst so I guess the Ukrainians and Bidem knew what they were doing (turns out they didn’t). Since then, Ukrainians choose to hide their intentions.
The 2022 offensive failed because there wasn’t enough support. Ukraine was saying they needed X tanks, shells, guns, whatever from the West, and they actually got around X/3. Even with that, they very nearly made it far enough that Crimea would have been logistically cut off. Russia would have either needed to come to terms or else Crimea literally and metaphorically starves.
There isn’t really a way to hide what you’re doing. You have to build up forces at your bases, move a lot of material, etc. The timing wasn’t going to be a surprise, either, because local seasonal weather changes put a demand on when you do things.
The Ukrainians were far from cutting off Crimea in 2022. They barely made it like 5-10 kilometres? And unfortunately, the area they recaptured is being slowly grounded away by Russian counterattacks in the past two years. The Ukrainians were hoping that Russia at the time haven’t learned their lesson and could replicate Ukrainian rapid offensive in Kharkiv in autumn of 2021.
The surprise Ukrainian offensive into Kursk proved you can hide your intentions. It isn’t like Ukraine haven’t learned their lesson beforehand. Speaking of which, the incursion wasn’t told to the White House either when Biden was president.
It didn’t need to be far.
Artillery range is around 70km. You need to get that close to the southern most road along the coast into Crimea, and a little more for padding some defense. Now you can turn that road and anything on it into rubble whenever you want.
Ukraine got within a few km of doing that at some areas.
The Kerch Strait Bridge could be hit whenever by a missile. Ukraine had already hit it by then.
There’s a port at Sevestapol. It’s also been hit by Ukranian missiles before, and even if not, it’s not enough on its own.
Airplanes expend lots of fuel for not much cargo. You’re not going to supply Crimea that way.
There would be no logistical options left for Russia. Holding those couple of km more would starve it out. Only question is if Putin tries to hang on out of stubbornness.
Apparently, the Russians moved a lot of their best bombers far from the front when they realized they were exposed to strikes, so Ukraine hit them with some James Bond, 4D chess operation they’d been planning for a year and a half.
Those bombers had been terrorizing Ukrainian cities, destroying defensive fortifications, and are a key part of the Russian nuclear threat.
Whatever weapons and money everyone is sending Ukraine, double it.
Ukraine did this with $500 drones. No infantry. No tanks or fighter jets.
Ukraine doesn’t have the numbers to continue this war, less they want to start drafting 18 year olds.
As much as I want to send them more money and arms, I want a ceasefire and end. Ukraine has lost enough, and they deserve peace.
I doubt Russia will agree to any peace talks though. And it’ll be tough to replicate Operation Spiderweb now that Russia knows how it was conducted.
Such a tragic fucking state of affairs
i take hope from the fact that since the war begun people have been saying ukraine has no chance, and yet here we are with ukraine still existing and independent… i guess when you’re defending your home you can pull some pretty impressive manoeuvres out of nowhere that people hadn’t accounted for
Russia is already sending children in their military and uses donkeys and stolen civilian vehicles for supply.
The fate of ukraine is in our hands, but its their decision what they will give to resist the orks.
You forget that russia is deeply corrupt. This type of operation can be done again.
Getting some inspiraton from hogans heros is good /j
Russia is so incompetent I’m sure Ukraine could execute something similar several times again.
If a Republican crippled a historic enemies military without a single soldier dying and did so using a fraction of the US military budget they would put him on Mt. Rushmore, but since Biden did it they, and the entire media apparatus, called him a bumbling fool and senile.
Just like how Reagan gets credit for ‘ending the Cold War’ when a ton of the legwork for that was put in place by Kennedy, Eisenhower, (yes Nixon too), and LBJ and Carter.
Biden has flaws, and I wish Biden really did more to help Ukraine in the beginning of the war, but him helping out and clearing so much equipment to them was a genuinely good thing that he did while in office.
Whatever weapons and money everyone is sending Ukraine, double it.
Freaking truth.
Side thought purely as a hypothetical from a civilian standpoint: I’m wondering if it’s too paranoid to consider figuring out how to smoothly use Monero for sending donations.
I’m wondering if records of sending aid to Ukraine will be the newest excuse to get disappeared by goons in the US, the same way they’ve been crushing the Constitutional rights of anyone who prominently voices anti-zionist dissent.
Apparently the FOB for the Ukrainians was next door to a FSB post
They shared the same Starbucks
Starbucks still operate in Russia?
It’s a fake Starbucks like the fake McDonald’s apparently
What is less conspicuous than sleeping right next to your enemy.
Are we sure that these were the aircrafts shooting the bombs?
Dont get me wrong, i hope they were and every Russian plane that goes up in flames is good, i just want to be really happy if there is some proof those were the actual planes that Ruzzia was using.
They’re heavy strategic bombers, like a full size commercial jet, they don’t have a lot of them and they could use more. So yes, these were definitively used to bomb Ukraine.
What does it matter in the end? Russia doesn’t say these bombers and only these bombers are for bombing Ukraine and if they get destroyed we’ll stop bombing Ukraine even though we have other bombers available. They’ll use whatever capacity they have, so any reduction in that capacity is a win.
“Russian war machine, go fuck yourself.”
I love the great news of Ukraine beating Putin’s sorry behind - and how that development is spreading to many other news sources.
Slava Ukraini!
How I wish that the general Russian population would know more about it.
I live in a place full of Russians. Trust me, they know. The official state media tries to cover it up, but it’s getting harder and harder. Most Russians know, they just can’t talk about it publicly without risking prison. But Putin’s days are numbered.
And what you have them know? Putin has prosecuted his propaganda in Russia exactly as he had in the West.
Russians think any and all news is bullshit, no source is to be trusted. And look what we have in America today. Huh.
It’s a weird sensation to stick to this as someone so far away, but I feel plain proud of all the Ukrainian forces that made this happen so successfully.
And a lot of the planes that were hit literally can’t be produced in Russia any more, to further rub it in.
Tell me more!
