Quote:Ukraine carried out a massive drone strike at airbases across Russia on Sunday, claiming to have destroyed dozens of aircraft. There are also indications that Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters, home of Russian nuclear submarines, was attacked as well. Overall, the attack was clearly aimed at Russia’s most prized strategic aerial assets, which cannot be replaced quickly in any manner and doing so at all would be extremely expensive.

“The Security Service of Ukraine is conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy bomber aircraft in the rear of the Russian Federation,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff stated on Telegram. “SBU drones have hit more than 40 aircraft, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3, causing damage of over $2 billion.”

The operation, codenamed “Web,” targeted four key Russian airbases: Belaya, Diaghilevo, Olenya and Ivanovo, the Kyiv Post reported.

There was no immediate response from Russian officials.

While The War Zone cannot independently verify these claims, video has emerged showing Russian bombers being struck by drones. We have geolocated the video to show that the attack was on the Olenya base, even though it was widely reported as the Belaya Air Base in Irkutsk.

The Russian air base in Olenegorsk, Murmansk, was also attacked.

Explosions and flames were observed at Russia’s Northern Fleet headquarters in Murmansk. It is home to some of Russia’s most capable submarines, like the Yasen-M class nuclear-powered cruise missile carrying Kazan.

Russian officials denied that the Northern Fleet headquarters was attacked.

“The information about explosions in Severomorsk, which is being spread on social networks, does not correspond to reality,” the head of the city said, according to the Russian Operation Z Telegram channel. “The situation is currently stable. No threats have been recorded. Do not panic and trust only verified sources of information!”

As all of this was taking place, the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said Russia conducted one of its biggest attacks of the war, launching 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles across the country. Ukraine says it “neutralised” 385 aerial targets.

Broader Context

As we noted in the opening of this story, the fact that Ukraine went after some of Russia’s most prized aerial capabilities, many of which are directly tied to its nuclear deterrent, greatly ups the ante. We don’t know how many strategic aircraft Russia lost today, but it could be a large portion of its long-range cruise missile carrier aircraft. While these aircraft have rained destruction on Ukraine from afar and are legitimate targets, they also underpin a leg of Russia’s nuclear deterrent. This will undoubtedly provoke a unique response from the Kremlin who has warned that widespread attacks against its strategic capabilities would be a red line.

Update: 11:50 AM Eastern –

The Russian Defense Ministry (MoD) commented on the attacks.

“Today, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using FPV drones against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions,” the MoD stated on Telegram. “At military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions, all terrorist attacks were repelled. In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, as a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several units of aircraft caught fire.”

The fires “have been extinguished,” the MoD added. “There are no casualties among military personnel or civilians. Some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “personally supervised the operation, and Vasyl Malyuk and the SBU team implemented the plan. 41 Russian strategic aviation aircraft were hit,” Ukrainian journalist Sergey Bratchuk wrote Telegram. “According to sources, this operation was extremely difficult from a logistical point of view. The SBU first transported FPV drones to Russia, and later – mobile wooden houses. Later, in the territory of the Russian Federation, the drones were hidden under the roofs of houses already placed on trucks. At the right moment, the roofs of the houses were remotely opened, and the drones flew to strike Russian bombers.”

Sources in the SBU “emphasize that the people who participated in this historic special operation have been in Ukraine for a long time,” Bratchuk added. “So, if the Putin regime demonstratively detains someone, it will be another staged operation.”

Irkutsk Oblast Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed that drones were launched from a truck.

“At the moment, it is known that this was a drone attack on a military unit in the village of Sredniy,” he stated on Telegram. “The source from which the drones were launched has already been blocked. It’s a truck. The main thing is not to panic. There is no threat to the lives and health of civilians.”

Meanwhile new video emerged of the attack on Olenya.



The large-scale attack comes ahead of a scheduled meeting in Istanbul that is part of ongoing peace talks.

“We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state, and our people,” Zelensky said on X. “I outlined the tasks for the near term and also defined our positions ahead of the meeting in Istanbul on Monday. First – a full and unconditional ceasefire. Second – the release of prisoners. Third – the return of abducted children. And in order to establish a reliable and lasting peace and ensure security, preparation of the meeting at the highest level. The key issues can only be resolved by the leaders. On Monday, our delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov.”


Update: 12:53 PM Eastern –

Ukraine informed the Trump administration about the attacks ahead of time, according to Axios.

The containers with the drones were assembled in Russia, according to Russian milblogger Sergey Kolyasnikov

“We found a warehouse where containers with drones were collected, Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk tract 28A,” he wrote on Telegram. “It was rented for 350,000 rubles (about $4,500). That’s why the truck in the Amur region had Chelyabinsk license plates – they were leaving from there.”

The Russian Rybar Telegram channel lauded local residents who tried to stop the launch of the drones from trucks.

“In attacks like today’s, one can often observe the stupid behavior of the native civilian population, when in the fourth year of the SVO they race to film the landings and post them on the Internet, in fact helping the enemy,” Rybar wrote. “Fortunately, there are also examples of the opposite: a video has gone viral on the Internet showing how caring drivers in a parking lot in the Irkutsk region climbed onto a truck from which drones were taking off and tried to destroy them with stones and improvised means. People risked their lives: the drone’s warhead is not the smallest, and what would happen if it detonated is a rhetorical question. But the men still tried to save others, even though they were ordinary civilians.”

“We hope that their merits will be duly noted, fortunately there have already been precedents,” Rybar added. “However, the picture is clear: the failures of some lead to the fact that the last line of defense is ordinary men, forced to break drones with their bare hands.”



Update: 1:20 PM Eastern – [Zelensky going rogue?]

Axios is backtracking on its original story, now saying the attack was a surprise to the Trump administration.

“Ukraine did not notify the Trump administration of the attack in advance, a Ukrainian official said,” the outlet is now reporting. “A U.S. official also told reporters the Trump administration was not made aware of the attack.”

Earlier today, The War Zone reached out to the White House and we will add any pertinent details provided.

Quote:For over a decade I have outlined the exact scenario as we just saw in Russia. It could happen in the U.S. tomorrow. This was a pivotal event. U.S. military and political leadership cannot live in partial denial of this threat anymore. Our most prized aircraft are sitting ducks.

I have focused on this issue above all else in my career. I care deeply about it. The failure of the DoD to foresee what was totally foreseeable, with obsessions with yesterday's threats is such a failure. We need to educate our non military leaders on what this is, a huge issue as well (see New Jersey). So much work to be done. Hardened aircraft shelters is still be debated in the Pacific. We are really in a bad spot here.

The biggest challenge with this issue is education. Many just don't take the time to learn the ins and outs of the UAS threat, there are many layers and nuances, emerging technologies. There are high up people in the military that don't even really understand these basics. Then really terrible assumptions fill the gaps. Our pilots, our troops, our generals, our local officials, need a crash course on all this NOW.

We have produced hundreds of articles on this issue and those surrounding it. Many hundreds, but some critical reading that pulls from a lot of it:

Adversary Drones Are Spying On The U.S. And The Pentagon Acts Like They’re UFOs

Written in 2017 (date stamp is wrong):
America’s Startling Short Range Air Defense Gap And How To Close It Fast

CRITICAL piece from 6 years ago:

The Strike On Saudi Oil Facilities Was Unprecedented And It Underscores Far Greater Issues

This is where we are currently at in terms of homeland defense which is very alarming:

Lasers, Microwaves, Missiles, Guns Not On The Table For Domestic Drone Defense

We have broken every drone incursion over US bases story ever posted but one that I am aware of. For years we reported on this when nobody else would or believed it.

Mysterious Drones Swarmed Langley AFB For Weeks

And our most important naval assets as well:

Drone Swarms That Harassed Navy Ships Off California Demystified In New Documents

A couple bases that are high risk are trying to do what they can:

Protective Nets To Shield F-22s Eyed For Airbase Swarmed By Mystery Drones

Plans For New Hardened Aircraft Shelters Notably Absent From New USAF Base Modernization Strategy


Finally, the most important read of them all because the problem is about to get way, WAY worse:

Drone Warfare’s Terrifying AI-Enabled Next Step Is Imminent

(06-02-2025, 05:41 AM)F2d5thCav Wrote: This should be a clear signal to the world's air forces:  BUILD HARDENED SHELTERS.

(06-04-2025, 05:39 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: And to those comparing this drone operation to a "Ukrainian Pearl Harbor", ask yourself: What happened to the country that carried out the original one?

(06-02-2025, 10:07 PM)727Sky Wrote:

(06-02-2025, 05:41 AM)F2d5thCav Wrote: This should be a clear signal to the world's air forces:  BUILD HARDENED SHELTERS.

Problem is unless the shelter is closed at both ends a drone can fly in any opening and do its thing. Not like the old days where mortars/Arty were lobbed onto a target from above... Reminds me; I was preflighting at O dark thirty one morning as a mortar attack happened. You could here the rounds whispering through the air (neat sound). 

Our birds were protected by revetments which I hunkered down inside and beside my aircraft as shrapnel was being sprayed out in the open. 5 minutes later the bombardment had stopped so we left and flew our missions for that day. 

If they would have had drones like those being used today our little patriotic war shit show would have been a different endeavor IMO.

Quote:Posted by EndtheMadnessNow 
Yesterday, RT reportedly received a copy of Russia’s peace memorandum given to Ukraine.

Quote:1. While most of America remains blissfully uninformed by our establishment press, the world's two greatest superpowers are being manipulated by Dark Forces inside and outside our government, into a major military confrontation that no country wants, and no sane person would ever want.

2. I have no role in the Trump Administration, but over a long career in the active uniformed military, specifically military intelligence, I have made it a point to cultivate many sources of information around the world. From what I can piece together, I want to share my deep concerns about who is behind this march to war, and my recommendations for how our nation and the West can avoid a major military confrontation with Russia.

3. I believe that the American Deep State is staffed by those with a deep, visceral, and irrational hatred for Russia, and these persons have conspired to box in President Trump's decision making through the Russiagate Hoax. During the time the Soviet Union was expanding and infiltrating our government, I was an outspoken anti-communist, but, despite the lies told by our Deep State, Russia is not the Soviet Union and Putin is not Stalin. Even today, years after the Russiagate Hoax has been exposed, President Trump's efforts to bring peace are met with resistance. The Establishment Press, deeply influenced and even sometimes controlled by our Deep State, labeled President Trump and those who work for him "Putin's Puppets" to goad him into taking unwarranted and aggressive steps against Russia. These voices from the establishment press reflect the views of the Deep State, not the American People, and not the MAGA movement, and should be completely disregarded, if not mocked.

4. During almost all of the post-World War II period, and certainly since the establishment of the CIA in 1947, these unelected dark establishment forces have acted to destabilize the world, bringing death, famine, assassinations, violence, coups, riots, revolutions, and destruction to our planet. Currently, these forces are working to provoke Russia into a major --- perhaps a final --- military conflict with the West.

5. This provocation has many forms. Most recently, it involves the surprise drone attack on the Russian federation strategic arsenal, said to affect 40 bombers, or about a third of Russia's strategic bomber fleet. Since Russian and American strategic bombers are generally required by agreement to be visible to satellite surveillance, never before has anyone engaged in an attack on these visible targets. If Russian bombers can be attacked with impunity, so can American bombers. By this action, the Ukrainian Government has not just weakened Russia, it has jeopardized America. Thus, those in the Ukrainian government who ordered these strikes have made themselves enemies not just of Russia, but of the United States. Making matters worse, this unwarranted attack was followed by Ukrainian attacks on the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.

6. I do not believe that the recent escalation against Russia's strategic bomber fleet was authorized by or coordinated with President Trump. Rather, it is my view that the Deep State is now acting outside of the control of the elected leadership of our nation. I believe that these persons in our Deep State are engaged in a deliberate effort to provoke Russia into a major confrontation with the West, including the United States. The time is now to take aggressive action against those who abuse their authority as government employees to manipulate the elected leadership of our nation.

7. Growing up in an Irish Democrat family in Rhode Island, I was only about five when John Kennedy was assassinated, but our family viewed John Kennedy as a hero. Not just for my family, one of our most beloved Presidents, John F. Kennedy, in 1961, found himself manipulated by earlier versions of these same Deep State forces when they attempted to manipulate President Kennedy to launch Air Force planes to attack Cuba after the failed invasion, resulting in an open conflict with both Cuba and the Soviet Union. In President Kennedy's June 1963 speech at American University declaring his vision of peace with the Soviet Union, he declared himself to be an enemy of this Deep State, which by all indications then retaliated by participating in his assassination five months later in Dallas. The American Deep State is not only a threat to peace, but a threat to the President.

8. President Trump has already faced at least two assassination attempts. If there is one person who I believe has the character and love for our nation to rid our government of these forces, it is President Trump. After the shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, President Trump displayed the type of personal courage that those of us who have served in the military deeply admire. With great affection for the President, I now urge him to risk the wrath of the Deep State once again by taking actions to purge enemies of our nation within our agencies and departments. Removing such persons from power is absolutely necessary to achieve the type of peace he described during his campaign and the beginning of his Administration.

9. Once President Kennedy realized he was being manipulated, and opposed because he sought peace, he removed Allen Dulles as Director of Central Intelligence, and several of his assistants. I urge President Trump to immediately clean house of any in government who had prior knowledge of or participated in any way in the Ukrainian attack on the Russian federation strategic bombers, and to go further by immediately declaring an end to any support for the Ukraine War. President Trump is right: this is not "his" War. I urge him to recall all open and covert military and other government personnel from Ukraine. I urge him to have all those personnel removed and interrogated by the FBI or the military to learn of their possible participation in unauthorized military activities. Any Americans who have aided and abetted Ukraine's attacks should be investigated for violation of American law, and prosecuted as necessary.

10. I also believe President Trump should distance himself from certain Western leaders such as German Chancellor Fred Merz, who have acted and spoken in an irresponsible manner with respect to the Ukraine War. If there are countries in Europe who wish to provide military assistance to Ukraine, that is their concern, and they should not be surprised by President Putin’s response to their actions against Russia. If such leaders want to lead their nations to war by persisting in such irresponsible behavior, they will go it alone.

11. I urge President Trump to also distance himself from demonstrated war mongers in our own government, chief among whom is U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham. Those who love wars fought by others are no friends of America, and have no entitlement to be friends of the President.

12. Finally, I urge the American people to stand prayerfully and resolutely with President Trump as he cleans house and acts in pursuit of the type of peace which President Kennedy embraced. Peace is not the normal state of man. Freedom requires a price be paid by every generation. It is time to recommit our nation to both.