‘Spiderweb’ Strikes Cripple 34% of Russian Bomber Fleet in $7 Billion Blow, SBU Confirms

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has officially confirmed it carried out a major drone strike against Russian military airfields, damaging or destroying what it claims is 34 percent of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers, in a long-planned covert operation codenamed “Spiderweb.”

The SBU said the strikes, which targeted airfields housing Russia’s long-range bombers, resulted in an estimated $7 billion in damage – a figure that has not yet been independently verified.

“Seven billion US dollars. This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of a special operation by the SBU – ‘Spiderweb,’” the agency said in a statement released Sunday, June 1.

Kyiv Post’s sources within Ukraine’s intelligence services earlier confirmed that at least 41 bombers were damaged or destroyed during the operation. 

A photo of SBU chief Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk standing beside a schematic map of the operation accompanied the statement. 

The drone attacks, launched Sunday, targeted five airfields across Russia: Belaya, Dyagilevo, Olenya, Ivanovo, and others located in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ryazan, and Amur regions.

Ukrainian FPV drones were launched from trucks parked near the airbases, according to intelligence sources and regional officials, damaging dozens of strategic aircraft used in daily bombing raids on Ukrainian cities, including long-range Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers, as well as an A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft.

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Earlier, sources within the SBU told Kyiv Post that the operation had been in the works for more than 18 months and was personally overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky and executed by SBU chief Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk and his team.

The drones were covertly transported into Russia and hidden beneath wooden houses mounted on trucks. When the time came, the drones were remotely released to strike the bombers on the ground.

“This is a turning point,” one SBU source said. “Our drones are now reaching far into the enemy’s rear, where the planes that drop bombs on our civilians take off. Their impunity is over.”

Video footage obtained by Kyiv Post appears to show explosions and fires across multiple airfields. In one clip from Belaya airbase, large fires can be seen raging, and a voice identified by the sources as that of SBU chief Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk is heard referencing the strike as a successful “bavovna” – a Ukrainian pun for explosions in Russian-held territory.

Additional video, provided by Kyiv Post’s sources in the security services, appears to show the moment SBU drones strike aircraft parked on the tarmac. Kyiv Post has not independently verified the authenticity of the footage.

 

It marks a high-point in one of the most ambitious SBU drone campaigns to date – a dramatic escalation in Ukraine’s long-range strike capability.

“We have the photos showing exactly how the drones were prepared and concealed inside these mobile structures,” one source said.

Multiple Russian Telegram channels confirmed, that the FPV drones that attacked military targets in the Irkutsk and Murmansk regions were launched from trucks parked along nearby highways.

Irkutsk Region Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed via Telegram that drones struck a military unit in the village of Sredny – the first time Siberia has come under drone attack.

“The source from where the drones were released has already been blocked. It’s a truck,” Kobzev wrote. “The main thing is not to panic. There is no threat to the life and health of civilians.”

The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged drone attacks on five airfields across Russia, including in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. In a statement, the ministry called the strikes “terrorist attacks” carried out by the “Kyiv regime.”

The ministry said that attacks at the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur airfields “were repelled,” while several pieces of aviation equipment “caught fire” in Murmansk and Irkutsk after drone launches from areas near the airfields. It reported no casualties among military or civilian personnel and that all fires have been extinguished.

“Some participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained,” the Russian Defense Ministry added, although Kyiv Post has not been able to verify these claims.