The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) published footage on its website from Operation Spiderweb, in which, according to Kiev, 41 Russian strategic military aircraft were destroyed or damaged, Ukrinform reported, quoted by BTA.
"As a result of the special operation "Spiderweb", which was personally supervised by President Volodymyr Zelensky and carried out by the head of the SSU Vasily Malyuk and SSU employees, 41 Russian aircraft were hit. A significant number of them were irreversibly destroyed, and the repair of some of the damaged aircraft will take years," the statement said.
The published footage shows strikes by FPV unmanned aerial vehicles (drones with "first-person" control – ed.) on four enemy airfields: "Olenya" in the Murmansk region, "Ivanovo" in the Ivanovo region, "Dyagilevo" in the Ryazan region, and "Belaya" in the Irkutsk region. These airbases were home to aircraft including the "Beriev" A-50, the "Tupolev" Tu-95 strategic bomber, the Tu-22 bomber, the Tu-160 supersonic strategic bomber, and the "Antonov" transport aircraft. An-12 and an Ilyushin Il-78 aerial refueling aircraft.
The operation used advanced drone control technology, which combines autonomous algorithms with artificial intelligence (AI) and manual input from an operator. "In particular, some drones, upon loss of signal, switched to performing their missions with the help of artificial intelligence based on pre-planned routes. "When approaching and hitting a designated target, the combat system was activated automatically," the SSU said.
According to "Ukrinform", the estimated value of the equipment hit during the special operation exceeds $7 billion.
Earlier today, the Associated Press reported that it had analyzed satellite images showing seven destroyed bombers on the runway of a Russian air base in eastern Siberia - one of the targets that Ukraine said it had hit with drones in one of the most daring covert operations during the war.
The images, provided by the company "Planet Labs PBC", show aircraft debris and burned areas at the "Belaya" air base in the Irkutsk region - the main installation of Russian long-range bombers. The footage shows at least three Tu-95 strategic bombers and four Tu-22M bombers destroyed.
Kiev, for its part, said 41 Russian military aircraft, including strategic bombers and other types of aircraft, were destroyed or damaged in Sunday's operation, which officials said had been planned for 18 months. The attack dealt a heavy blow to Russia's air force and its military prestige.
The Russian Defense Ministry said several fighter jets were set on fire in the attack at air bases in the Irkutsk region in Siberia and the Murmansk region in northern Russia, but the fires were extinguished. The agency stressed that Ukraine also attempted to strike two air bases in western Russia, as well as another in the Amur region in the Russian Far East, but the attacks were repelled.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet commented on the matter.
The Tu-95 is a four-engine turboprop aircraft capable of intercontinental flights and was designed in the 1950s to compete with the American "Boeing" B-52 bomber (Boeing B-52 Stratofortress). The Tu-22M is a twin-engine supersonic bomber with variable-geometry wings.
Russia has been using the heavy aircraft in the all-out war that began in February 2022 to launch waves of cruise missile strikes against targets in Ukraine.
For decades, long-range bombers have been part of the Soviet and Russian nuclear triad, which also includes land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles. The strategic bombers conduct regular patrols around the world, demonstrating Moscow's nuclear power, the AP notes.