In photos released shortly after the attack, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), can be seen looking at a satellite map of airfields in which the bases in the locations listed by Russia are clearly identifiable
Marco Levytsky, Editorial Writer.
On June 1, Ukraine launched a brilliant strategic and surgical strike on Russia’s bomber fleet that deserves special mention in the history of warfare. The attack, dubbed “Operation Spiderweb” by Ukrainian authorities, was carried out by the SBU, Ukraine’s secret service. They destroyed 41 Russian bombers, representing 34 percent of Moscow’s strategic bombing capability. Estimates of the damage reached as high as $7 billion, with a Ukrainian cost of only $200,000. The range covered was astounding, reaching as far as the Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, just north of the Mongolian border, over 4,000 kilometres from Ukraine. Other air bases included Olenya (Murmansk Oblast), Diaghilev (Ryazan Oblast), and Ivanovo (Ivanovo Oblast).
Over a period of about 18 months, hundreds of drones were smuggled deep into Russia. They were hidden in false compartments of modular units being transported by civilian trucks with double-bottomed trailers. The tops of these compartments featured retractable roofs that were remotely controlled by operators in Ukraine but connected to the Russian telephone network. Ukrainian intelligence carefully studied all 41 targets for months. The specially-outfitted trucks were driven as close as possible to each selected air base and, at the appointed moment, the armed drones were released and remotely guided by their operators kamikaze style into Russian bombers lined-up on the tarmac, destroying or seriously damaging them without any civilian casualties.
Objective observers lauded the attack for its strategic brilliance and long-term effect.
The sheer genius of Operation Spider’s Web lies not only in its technical execution or physical impact; it is equally a masterclass in psychological and economic warfare. Instead of concealing the details of the operation, Ukraine opted to disclose them publicly — a strategic choice that sent shockwaves through the Russian military and general population. By revealing how the mission was conducted, Ukraine weaponized paranoia.
“Now, every cargo truck in Russia is a potential threat. Every driver is a suspect. In the days following the attack, massive traffic jams were reported in regions like Irkutsk, as authorities began systematically inspecting cargo trucks. Surveillance and internal security resources are being diverted to monitor tens of thousands of kilometers of highway. Military and civilian logistics are slowing down. Contractors are being viewed with suspicion. Bottlenecks are forming. Trust is eroding,” wrote Dr. Roman Sheremeta, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University, in a June 3 article for Europe’s Edge, the online journal of the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) covering critical foreign policy topics across Europe and North America.
French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, author of “Israel Alone” and director of the Ukraine documentary “Our War,” forthcoming June 11, went even further in a June 2 article for the Wall Street Journal entitled “Drone Attack Shows Why Ukraine Will Win This War”. Comparing the military effectiveness of both armies, he wrote: “Sunday’s operation is further proof that the Ukrainian army, through sacrifice and adversity, has forged itself into the boldest, brightest and best in Europe. I witnessed its evolution as I prepared my documentaries on the war.”
“On one side, a ridiculed general staff, an ultimate weapon that is greatly diminished and discredited, troops so demoralized that they fight only with the support of North Korean, Chinese, Ghanaian, Bangladeshi and Iranian mercenaries.
“On the other side, a patriotic citizen army, motivated and knowing why it combats — an army that has proved its mastery of the most advanced military technologies, its excellence not only in trench warfare but also in the new remote and ghost warfare.
“Ukraine will defeat Russia on the battlefield or impose the terms of a just peace. Either way it will win the war,” he concluded.
U.S. President Donald Trump stubbornly refused to thank Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for destroying 34 percent of Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet or even acknowledge the impact of the attack. Instead, he made the inane comment that “Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy… They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”
Even worse was one of his henchmen, Steve Bannon, a virulent Ukrainophobe, who, incredibly, urged Trump to immediately condemn Ukraine’s military strike and arrest Republican Senator Lindsey Graham for sponsoring the Russia sanctions bill now heading for a vote. Bannon is a convicted criminal who calls himself a “Christian Nationalist”. His comments expose the despicable hypocrisy of MAGA Republicans who Trumpet their piety from the pulpit, yet support a brutal dictator bent on committing genocide.
After Operation Spiderweb, Ukraine launched further daring attacks against strategic Russian targets. Employing underwater explosives, Ukrainian special forces once again succeeded — albeit to a yet undetermined extent — in damaging the Kerch Bridge which connects mainland Russia with Crimea. Ukraine also continued to strike deep into Russian territory to destroy other infrastructure and military formations vital to Russia’s war efforts. On June 5, Ukrainian forces launched a missile strike targeting a concentration of Russian missile troops near the city of Klintsy in Russia’s Bryansk Oblast, The strike reportedly destroyed one Iskander missile launcher and seriously damaged two others. The following day drones hit an oil refinery in the city of Engels in Russia’s Saratov Oblast and a Russian military plant in Michurinsk, Tambov Oblast. Attacks were also reported in Russia’s Saratov, Moscow, Tula, Belgorod, and Kaluga oblasts.
Russia, on the other hand, continued its terrorist attacks on civilian targets. June 6 Moscow launched a massive missile and drone attack against Ukraine, targeting Kyiv, other major cities, and the country’s far-western regions. Ukraine’s Air Force reported that Russia launched 452 drones overnight, including Iranian-designed Shahed-type suicide drones, along with 45 missiles of various types.
Never in recent history has there been such a stark contrast between two warring armies. While the David in this conflict adheres strictly to the rules of war, meticulously targeting strategic military assets, the Goliath systematically engages in the destruction of civilian infrastructure and the mass murder of non-combatants in order to terrorize the population, crush morale, and eliminate the will to fight. Bearing witness to the moral depravity of Putin and his regime is the fact that the Russian President regularly and publicly issues commendations, and awards military medals, to officers and conscripts alike for their role in the wholescale slaughter of civilians as occurred in Mariupol, Bucha, Irpin, Kherson and elsewhere in Ukraine.
It’s time for those blinded by Russian propaganda to wake up to reality. These are not two children fighting among themselves. This is an existential struggle for survival by a free and democratic nation against a rapacious despotism bent upon imperial conquest and undisguised, premeditated genocide.
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