[UPDATED: June 2, 4:16 am , Kyiv time. Zelensky says all “Spiderweb” operatives safe.
Late on Sunday night, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on social media that all of the operatives of the nation’s security services, SBU, who had participated in a a raid earlier in the day that knocked out about $7 billion in Russian military aircraft within the invading country’s airfields, were safe in Ukraine and accounted for.
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The operation was dubbed “Spiderweb.”
“An absolutely brilliant result,” the president wrote.
“A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation. Our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time,” Zelensky wrote on Facebook.
He thanked Gen. Vasyl Malyuk for the successful mission and instructed the SBU to update Ukrainians on any details and results of the mission that can be made public.
“Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books. Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war. Russia started this war, Russia must end it,” the president noted.
Earlier on Sunday, the SBU ran a unique special operation, “Spiderweb,” simultaneously attacking four Russian airfields – Belaya, Diagilevo, Olenya and Ivanovo.
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As a result of the special raid, more than 40 enemy aircraft were hit, including such models as A-50, Tu-95, and Tu-22 M3.
The operation had been in the works for more than 18 months, Zelensky noted, and said that he had personally supervised its progress. The mission was commanded by SBU Chief Vasyl Malyuk and his team, the president said.
[UPDATED: June 1, 9:18 pm , Kyiv time. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) has officially confirmed it carried out a major drone strike against Russian military airfields.]
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.
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.
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