Ukraine was able to carry out its stunning “Operation Spider Web” attack on Russian air bases and nuclear fleet by hiding explosives-laden drones in wooden sheds, according to officials.
Kyiv’s secret service (SBU) stashed the attack drones inside the roofs of the sheds, which were loaded onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases, Ukrainian authorities revealed in a statement shared on social media.
The roof panels were then lifted off by a remotely activated device so the 117 drones used in the strikes could fly out and make their devastating attacks.
“At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were remotely opened, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,” a security source told AP.
The dramatic and carefully planned Sunday assault took Russian President Vladimir Putin and his forces completely unaware.
Some 34% of Russia’s Tu-95 bomber fleet, equipped to carry nuclear payloads, was reportedly wiped out in the raids on five air bases across the country, the SBU said on Sunday.
A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit in the strikes, causing an eye-watering $7 billion in damage, Ukrainian officials said.
The attack, which involved strikes on bases some 4,000 miles from the Ukrainian border, has already been branded “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” by gloomy pro-Moscow military bloggers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised the “absolutely brilliant outcome” of his country’s “longest-range operation” to date, writing on the messaging app Telegram.
The operation — of which the White House was reportedly not given prior warning — took more than a year and a half to prepare, Zelensky said.
Five bases in five different regions of Russia were attacked, including the Amur region in the far east of the country, Irkutsk in Siberia, Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, and Ryazan and Ivanovo close to Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Ukraine’s security service was able to set up its HQ right next to a regional office of the Russian security forces, the FSB, Zelensky bragged on Sunday.
Russian forces suffered “very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” he added.
All of the Ukrainian operatives who took part were smuggled back out of Russia “on the eve of the operation,” he said.
That contrasted with claims made by the Russia’s Defense Ministry that Russian forces had detained some of the individuals involved in the attacks. Sunday’s attacks came just one day before Monday’s scheduled peace talks in Turkey.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are meeting in Istanbul today for urgent talks, the second round to be held in a little over two weeks. Ukrainian negotiators have demanded a 30-day cease-fire, a prisoner swap, and the repatriation of Ukrainian children kidnapped and taken into Russia, Reuters reports.
Neither Zelensky nor Putin will be present at Monday’s talks, although, if successful, a meeting between the two leaders is expected to follow.
However, the violence over the weekend, which also saw a devastating Russian aerial assault on Ukraine kill at least 12 service members and wound more than 60, has made the chance of a second meeting far less likely, experts warn.
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