Ukrainian drones wipe out $1bn-worth of military aircraft in daring strikes inside Russia following Operation Spiderweb

Ukrainian drones destroyed 15 of Putin’s military aircraft in Russian airspace deep in the front lines following Operation Spider’s Web.

Dramatic footage showed drones successfully hitting planes at five different military airports, but Ukraine did not specify exactly when the attack took place.

Ukraine’s spy service SBU claimed to have shot down 11 Sukhoi and MiG fighter jets, three helicopters and an Antonov An-26 cargo plane.

It was stated that the value of these planes was more than 1 billion dollars.

The SBU said the high-level Alpha unit was behind the attacks. Su-30SM and Su-34 jets, two of the Kremlin’s most important front-line aircraft, were destroyed, along with older Su-27 and Su-24 aircraft used to strike Ukraine.

Ukraine also destroyed MiG-31 interceptors. They are a key part of Russia’s air defense system and are often used to launch hypersonic Kinzhal missiles.

Three helicopters (one Mi-8, one Mi-26 and one Mi-28) will undermine Russia’s transport and logistics capabilities.

SBU added that fuel and ammunition depots were also destroyed during the operation.

Ukraine’s spy service SBU claimed to have shot down 11 Sukhoi and MiG fighter jets, three helicopters and an Antonov An-26 cargo plane.

The attacks came just weeks after the same Alpha unit destroyed or disabled an estimated $4 billion worth of Russian air defense systems.

In addition to missile launchers such as S-300, S-350 and S-400, advanced radar systems were also hit.

While the destruction of the plane has given the SBU plenty to celebrate, a senior Ukrainian lawmaker said today that life would be particularly difficult for Ukrainians over the next three weeks due to falling temperatures and intense Russian attacks on the energy system, which has already deprived millions of light and heat.

The attacks follow last year’s Operation Spider’s Web, which used hundreds of first-person perspective (FPV) attack drones secretly controlled by Zelensky himself and smuggled into Russia in wooden containers disguised as modular homes.

Driven by unsuspecting Russian truck drivers, the vehicles were parked near strategic air bases before their roofs were remotely opened, unleashing swarms of drones that targeted and destroyed bombers on the ground.

The devastating attacks took place on June 1; There were dramatic videos posted by pro-Kremlin military bloggers showing flames engulfing planes in multiple locations; one of them was deep in Siberia, some 2,600 miles from the Ukrainian front lines.

At least four more Russian strategic air bases were hit: Olenya in the Arctic region of Murmansk; Dyagilevo in Western Russia; Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow; and Podmoskovye in Moscow.

Sources within Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed that the operation disabled 34 percent of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers; these include nuclear-capable Tu-95s and Tu-22M3s, which are often used to launch cruise missiles against Ukraine.

However, these aircraft cannot be replaced because they are no longer produced.

At least 41 long-range bombers were damaged or destroyed, the SBU said in a statement.

The lethal loads were hidden in what drivers thought were modular homes and delivered to Russian airports in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ryazan and Ivanovo.

Images published by Ukrainian secret services at the time showed wooden containers filled with 117 FPV kamikaze drones.

Dozens of black drones lined up in mobile wooden cabins. There were secret compartments on the roofs where small flying weapons were stored.

These boxes were then loaded onto civilian trucks heading into enemy territory; The hired local drivers apparently did not know what they were carrying.

They then attacked on June 1, when all the trucks were within range of five airfields stretching from northern Russia to Siberia.

In his statement, President Zelensky praised the “perfectly prepared” operation, which he claimed was carried out from a building near the office of the Federal Security Service, Russia’s main security service.

Despite progress in peace talks that have led to the first-ever tripartite talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States, Russia has increased its bombings beyond the front line into eastern and southern Ukraine.

SBU said these planes are worth more than $1 billion

According to official forecasts, temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius are expected in the northern and eastern parts of Ukraine next week; It is extremely low for this country.

“The bad news is that there will indeed be frost and it will be difficult,” Andriy Gerus, chairman of the parliament’s energy committee, told national television channel Marathon.

“The good news is that we have to hold out for three weeks, then everything will be easier,” he added, citing predicted warmer temperatures and increased solar energy due to longer days.

Two recent Russian missile and drone attacks on the capital Kiev in January left nearly a million people without electricity and 6,000 apartment buildings without heating. After weeks of repairs, nearly 700 buildings are still without heat.

This picture is repeated across the country; Northern and eastern Ukraine, home to major cities such as Kiev, Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Sumy, are regularly targeted, leading to electricity restrictions in industry and power outages for consumers.

Attacks on power plants, the power transmission system, and the gas sector have long been key elements of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, which launched in February 2022.

Moscow says it is trying to undermine Ukraine’s ability to wage war.

The head of DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy producer, told Reuters last week that Ukraine was approaching a “humanitarian catastrophe” due to damage to energy systems amid freezing temperatures and called for a ceasefire against attacks on energy assets.

Kiev targeted Russian oil processing infrastructure to reduce state revenues financing the war.

The Ukrainian solar energy association said that about 1.5 gigawatts of new solar power capacity was commissioned by Ukraine in 2025, and the total installed solar power capacity in Ukraine, including residential installations, exceeds 8.5 gigawatts.

The volume is higher than the 7.7 gigawatt installed capacity of three Ukrainian-controlled nuclear power plants and helped the country cope during repairs at those plants last summer, but production is weather-dependent.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said this month that Ukraine’s damaged power system was meeting only 60 percent of the country’s electricity needs this winter, with 11 gigawatts of electricity generation capacity against a need of 18 gigawatts.

Maximum electricity imports from EU countries, combined with power outages in all regions, still allow the system to remain balanced.