The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) on June 7 released new footage from Operation Spiderweb, Kyiv's daring mass drone strike against four Russian military airfields on June 1.
The video shows the flight path of a first-person-view (FPV) drone from the moment it takes off from the roof of a modular building to the moment it strikes a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber at the Belaya air base in Siberia.
The drone flies a considerable distance from its launch point to the airfield, where smoke is already rising from planes struck earlier in the operation. The video shows a previously hit Russian aircraft engulfed in flames.
Russia's Belaya air base in Irkutsk Oblast, southeastern, Siberia, is located over 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Ukraine.
Operation Spiderweb involved smuggling FPV drones deep into Russian territory, according to the SBU. The drones were hidden in mobile wooden cabins on trucks and remotely launched at the right moment to strike bombers used in missile attacks on Ukrainian cities.
The operation took 18 months to plan and execute.
The SBU said the strikes disabled 34% of Russia's cruise missile bombers and inflicted approximately $7 billion in damage.
The Belaya air base was among the most distant targets. Other bases included the Olenya (Murmansk Oblast), Diaghilev (Ryazan Oblast), and Ivanovo (Ivanovo Oblast) air bases.
Ukraine said the strike succeeded in damaging 41 planes, including Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 bombers and rare A-50 spy planes. The Kyiv Independent could not independently confirm the number of planes allegedly damaged or destroyed, though open-source intelligence analysts have confirmed that at least 21 aircraft were damaged or destroyed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on June 7 that Ukraine only used domestically produced drones in the attack.
Daria Shulzhenko
(Updated: )
