Ukrainian forces stunned the Russian military Sunday after wiping out and damaging dozens of nuclear bombers and other aircraft with ambitious and complicated attacks that struck President Vladimir Putin’s air bases deep inside the country, Kyiv says.
Even pro-Moscow military bloggers are calling the strike — which used drones hidden in trucks — “the Russian Pearl Harbor.”
The attack came just a day before the leaders of Ukraine and Russia were potentially set to meet in Istanbul as part of US-backed cease-fire talks.
The mission carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones hit 41 Russian heavy bombers and other warplanes at four separate airfields thousands of miles from Ukraine.
The cost of the destroyed aircraft, most of which Russia no longer even manufactures, is at least $7 billion, Kyiv said.
The doomsday bombers are a critical part of Russia’s nuclear deterant — originally designed to obliterate the US and Europe with atomic weapons in the event of all-out war.
Ukraine said said the aircaft had been converted and were being used to pummel their country with cruise missiles. Officials claimed they had destroyed more than one-third of Russia’s strategic bombers in the strike.
TU-95 “Bear” nuclear bombers, TU-22 “Backfire” fast-attack bombers and A-50 “Mainstay” command-and-control jets were among the aircraft that were destroyed in the strike, according to reports.
One of the bases hit was in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, almost 2,500 miles from Ukraine.
Others targeted were in Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, Ryazan southeast of Moscow, and Ivanovo, to the northeast of the Russian capital.
The attack, codenamed ” Operation Spider’s Web,” took some 18 months of planning and will deal a huge blow to Moscow’s efforts to launch long-range missile attacks on Ukrainian cities, Kyiv said.
Video shows what appears to be a row of heavy bomber aircraft on fire at one of the airbases.
Ukraine conducted a major drone attack hitting over 40 Russian military aircraft on Sunday.
“Rows of Russian strategic and nuclear bombers burning.”
This was thousands of miles from the frontline.
Some are calling this Russia’s Pearl Harbor. pic.twitter.com/UefJYXs502
— Paul A. Szypula
(@Bubblebathgirl) June 1, 2025
Footage on social media shows FPV drones launching from parked trucks next to the Russian airfields.
“The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and later on the territory of the Russian Federation, the drones were hidden under the roofs of mobile wooden cabins, already placed on trucks,” a source told the Kyiv Independent.
“At the right moment, the roofs of the cabins were opened remotely, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers.”
Ukraine said the attack was launched in response to Russia carrying out one of its largest drone attacks since the start of the war last week, with 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles involved, according to Ukrainian authorities, who said they had neutralized 385 aerial targets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally oversaw the operation, the source told Kyiv Independent.
Earlier, a post featuring an emoji of a spider web was posted on X by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak.Kyiv did not tell the White House in advance of the attack, sources in both capitals told Axios.
President Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the three-year war, and this attack could further stall the path to peace.
Ukraine has said it is committed to peace, but was waiting for a memorandum from the Russian side setting out its aims before agreeing to meet with Russia on Monday.”For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared,” Zelensky wrote on X on Friday.
“Unfortunately, Russia is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results,” he added.
Zelensky set out his country’s position on the talks in the wake of Sunday’s attacks, demanding a complete and unconditional Russian ceasefire, prisoner release and the return of abducted children.
Russia so far has rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire and repeatedly made demands that Ukraine has turned down.
In separate attacks, the collapse of two bridges near the Ukrainian border, killing at least seven people, has been blamed by Russian investigators on sabotage.
