As evidence, the SBU released a collection of new video footage that shows Ukrainian drones hitting engines, antennas, wings and other parts of different Russian strategic and reconnaissance aircraft at four military airfields located thousands of kilometers inside Russia.
Russia frequently uses those airfields to bomb Ukraine’s cities with ballistic and cruise missiles.
“Among the hit aircraft were ‘A-50,’ ‘Tu-95,’ ‘Tu-22,’ ‘Tu-160,’ as well as ‘An-12’ and ‘Il-78,’” the SBU said, claiming that its clandestine operation caused more than $7 billion worth of financial damage to Russia.
Open source intelligence experts and journalists have confirmed, using newly released satellite footage, the destruction of at least 11 strategic bombers.
The “Spider Web” drone operation stunned the world with its audacity, with some keen watchers praising Ukraine for rewriting the rules of modern warfare and others, like U.S. Special Envoy on Ukraine Keith Kellogg, expressing concern about the tactics.
“When you attack an opponent’s part of the national survival system, which is their triad, their nuclear triad — that means your risk level goes up because you don’t know what the other is going to do … It’s a very emboldened act. And when you do that, it’s very clear that the risk levels will go up. That is what we try to avoid,” Kellogg told Fox News on Tuesday.
