Spiderweb – Russian Manhunt for ‘Agent’ Who Duped Truck Drivers Into Delivering Attack Drones

After questioning the truck drivers whose vehicles carried the Operation Spiderweb drones that attacked Russian airfields on Sunday, investigators issued details of the suspected Ukrainian agent who duped them into the deliveries, according to Russian social media reports.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out the extraordinary operation, which was personally approved by President Volodymyr Zelensky and directly supervised by SBU head Lt. Gen. Vasyl Malyuk. Almost 120 first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones were smuggled into Russia and placed in prefabricated wooden houses on trucks from where they attacked five airfields in the Belaya, Dyagilevo, Olenya and Ivanovo airfields.

According to the Baza Telegram channel, which claims to have links with Russia’s security forces, the individual is a 37-year-old Ukrainian, Artem Timofeev, who before Sunday was a resident of Russia’s Chelyabinsk region. His photograph and details appeared on the city administration’s Telegram and VKontakte channels on Monday, before being later deleted, but not before they were also posted on Russian social media.

Baza said that Timofeev was born in Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, but lived in Kyiv until a few years ago, when he moved to the Chelyabinsk region. In October 2024 he registered as the owner of cargo transportation company and purchased several trucks – a timescale that fits in with Zelensky’s assertion that the operation had been planned for at least 18 months.

Other Topics of Interest

Foreign Minister Sybiha: Russians’ Support of War Crimes – More Enthusiastic Than Nazi Germany

Ukraine’s top diplomat Andriy Sybiha just argued World War II dictator Adolf Hitler faced more dissent and public resistance from the Germans, than Vladimir Putin does from the Russian people.

All the drivers who drove the trucks on the day of the attacks on military airfields in the Irkutsk, Murmansk, Ryazan and Ivanovo regions were detained and all told the same story. They were hired by Timofeev to deliver frame houses to a specific location in one of the target areas and during the journey were contacted by cell phone and told to pull in to a parking area, gas station or similar spot – which we now know were the launch sites close to the drone targets.

Who were the drivers?

Reports on social media cast light on how truck drivers were recruited, who they were, and why they had no idea what was going on.

• 55-year-old “Alexander,” a resident of Chelyabinsk was hired by “Artem” to transport four modular houses from Chelyabinsk to the Kola district of the Murmansk region. He saw and loaded his cargo and had no suspicion of its true nature. He said that an unknown person contacted him on the phone who told him to stop at a Rosneft gas station – which was close to the Olenya military airfield in Murmansk –from where drones were launched.
• 61-year-old “Andrey” told how Artem hired him to transport his modular houses to the Irkutsk region. On the way he was told to pull into a parking lot near the Teremok cafe in Usolye-Sibirskoye – around 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the Belaya military airfield. He said almost immediately drones began to take off from the back of his truck.
• 46-year-old Sergei told investigators that he was also transporting modular homes from Chelyabinsk but while driving close to Ryazan, about 120 kilometers (75 miles) southeast of Moscow, the roof of his truck suddenly came off and drones began flying out.
• A fourth unnamed driver, whose truck was also loaded in Chelyabinsk, was used to launch drones against the Ivanovo Severny Airbase 150 miles northeast of Moscow – a base for Russia’s A-50 airborne early warning and command (AEW&C) aircraft.
• A fifth truck caught fire near the village of Seryshevo in the Amur region close to the Ukrainka airfield, where the vehicle, which was also carrying drones, caught fire and the driver was apparently killed after entering the trailer that then exploded.
• Images posted on social media showed the driver of a sixth truck having been found strangled by a plastic cord – the reports did not specify where the incident occurred and the Russian authorities have not commented.

Ukraine’s president said on Sunday evening that all of those involved in Spiderweb had been safely evacuated to Ukraine – which could deprive Russia’s security services of even the minor success of apprehending Timofeev.