Drone attack on Russia: What is known about the “Spider Netz” campaign

With its large -scale drone attack on Russian military airfields, Ukraine has succeeded in the largest secret service coup since the beginning of the war. Several long -haul bombers are said to have been destroyed on the attack on Sunday – some of them were parked on roller fields, which are more than 4300 kilometers away from the front.

On Monday morning, the surprise attack responsible for the “Operation Spider Netz” released SBU. Some information is now – at least partially – confirmed, others cannot be checked independently. An overview.

Both Ukraine and Russia speak of four attacked airfields. Accordingly, the military bases from Djagilewo, Olenia, Iwanovo Severny and the Air Force base Belaya in the Siberian region of Irkutsk met. A planned attack on an airbase in Ukrainka failed.

On the airfields mentioned, strategic bombers are stationed, among other things, with which Russia regularly attacks Ukraine with marching aircraft.

According to the SBU, a total of 41 aircraft-including the types A-50, TU-95, TU-22 M3 and TU-160-were hit by drones. The secret service puts the damage caused by more than $ seven billion; Russia has lost 34 percent of its strategic bomber fleet, it is said. The information cannot be checked.

Monday satellite shots circulating on the Internet, however, shows that Russia has probably lost at least ten bombers at the Belaya airfield alone.

Verified videos suggest that several machines were also destroyed by drones at the Olenia airfield or at least badly damaged. There were no satellite shots like Belaya.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian Center for Combating Disinformation, many others were damaged.

Officially, Russia only confirmed that “several planes” through FPV drones had caught fire at the airfields in Belaya and Olenia. All other attacks could be warded off, it is said. .

The Russian, on the other hand, also spoke of several TU-95 machines that had been destroyed and referred to the circulating videos as evidence. “Without understatement, this is a very serious damage,” says Telegram.

Already on Sunday evening, citing SBU circles reported that the drones loaded with explosives were hidden in roofs of wooden house, which were then transported with trucks near the air force bases. Finally, the roof panels were opened remotely so that the drones could fly out and attack. The SBU officially confirmed this information on Monday. Rybar and other pro-Russian military bloggers are also based on the procedure described. At least two videos are circulating online, which are supposed to show drones rising from a truck.

According to the Ukrainian President Wolodymyr Selenskyj, a total of “117 drones and a corresponding number of drone pilots were used”.

According to SBU boss Wassyl Maljuk, the drone attack took place in three time zones at the same time and was “extremely complex” from a logistical point of view. The Russian side did not comment on temporal processes of the attacks.

On Sunday evening, President Selenskyj wrote that around a year and a half had passed between the start of planning and implementing the campaign. The SBU confirmed this information in its statement on Monday. The destruction of the enemy bombers was commanded by Selenskyj, it continues. Accordingly, the president is said to have personally monitored the course of the “special operation”.

According to the SBU, FPV drones were first smuggled to Russia, where they were then hidden in roofs of wooden huts. Selenskyj wrote on X on Sunday: “The most interesting thing about it-and this can now be explained in public-is that the” office “of our operation in the Russian area was located right next to the FSB headquarters in one of its regions.”

Accommodation published on the net should show where the drones were stored and later installed before they were brought to their locations with the trucks. The warehouse could be localized from the Russian side in Tscheljabinsk.

A search took place there on Sunday, as reported, among other things. There are said to have been found traces of the explosives hexogenic, it is said.

According to the SBU, all employees involved in the special surgery have been back in Ukraine for a long time.