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Russia overwhelmed by surprise Ukrainian drone attacks

Ukraine on Sunday June 1, 2025 unleashed over hundred unmanned drones deep inside Russia targeting important military bases that also hit and destroyed nuclear bombers

Monday June 2, 2025 10:04 PM, Agenies

Moscow/Kyiv/Istanbul: Ukraine on Sunday June 1, 2025 unleashed over hundred unmanned drones deep inside Russia targeting important military bases that also hit and destroyed nuclear bombers.

Code named “Operation Spider’s Web”, the latest Ukrainian strike hit targets in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions of Russia.

“In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire,” the Russian Defence Ministry said.

FPV Drones

FPV drones are unmanned aerial vehicles with cameras on the front that relay live footage to operators, who in turn use those visuals to direct the drones.

More than 40 aircraft were known to have been hit in the operation, according to an SBU security source, including TU-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers and one of Russia’s few remaining A-50 surveillance planes.

Analysts have called Ukraine’s Sunday drone attack on the bomber bases the most significant by Kyiv since the beginning of the war, CNN reported.

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Belaya, June 1, 2025, operation Spiderweb, another footage pic.twitter.com/QIcrkpU5EN

— IgorGirkin (@GirkinGirkin) June 2, 2025

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that it had hit Russian military planes worth a combined $7bn in a wave of drone strikes on Russian air bases thousands of kilometres behind the front line, Al Jazeera reported.

Targets included the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, about 4,300km (2,670 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and the Olenya airbase in south Murmansk, some 1,800km (1,120 miles) from Ukraine.
Russia is yet to confirm the extent of the damage, but the attack could mark Ukraine’s most damaging drone strike of the war to date.

“Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so,” Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said while claiming his army used 117 drones for the Sunday surprise attack.

Istanbul Talks

Ukraine drone attack on Russia came a day before crucial peace talks in Istanbul, Türkiye.
The peace talks were held despite the attack, and officials from both the sides major breakthrough.

“We agreed on an ‘all-for-all’ exchange of seriously wounded and seriously ill prisoners of war. The second category is young soldiers aged 18 to 25,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said at a press conference.

“We also agreed on the return of 6,000-for-6,000 bodies of dead soldiers,” he added, emphasizing that while the agreement focused on specific categories rather than fixed numbers, the humanitarian aspect was clear, according to the state owned Anadolu Agency.

Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, also confirmed the agreement.

“Moscow and Kyiv agreed on the largest-ever war prisoners exchange – an all-for-all format covering heavily wounded and young soldiers between the ages of 18 and 25", Medinsky said adding that Moscow would return the bodies of 6,000 Ukrainian soldiers.

The agreement was finalized during the second round of talks at Istanbul’s Ciragan Palace, where Turkish mediation efforts brought both sides together once more.

Meanwhile, calling called the Russia-Ukraine peace talks held in Istanbul “magnificent”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Türkiye is planning to host Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump so as to find ways to end more than three years of war.

“My greatest wish is to bring together Putin and Zelenskyy in Istanbul or Ankara and even add Trump along,” Erdogan said addressing a news conference in Ankara.

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