Military analysts see limited tactical effect from Ukraine’s airbase drone strikes PHOTO

Ukraine’s intelligence services carried out a complex sabotage operation dubbed "Spider Web" across several regions of Russia, striking four military airfields with drones. However, analysts suggest that the operation is unlikely to significantly affect the course or outcome of the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff updated its morning briefing on June 3 to include revised figures on Russian aircraft hit during the operation, now reporting that 12 planes were damaged or destroyed by Ukrainian forces, Caliber.Az reports.

This is the first official update since June 1, when Ukrainian intelligence launched the Web operation, during which drones targeted military airbases inside Russia.

Following the drone strikes, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) announced that 41 aircraft had been hit, including several bombers. However, visual evidence available to date confirms the loss of approximately 10 to 13 aircraft.

The independent outlet Meduza notes that during the war with Ukraine, Russia’s long-range aviation has been used only to a limited extent. Within Russia’s nuclear triad — the strategic nuclear forces — long-range bombers have played the smallest role. Unlike nuclear submarines or intercontinental ballistic missile systems, aircraft can be used to deliver conventional weapons, primarily cruise missiles.

Meduza reports that Russian bombers have been used mainly in this conventional capacity during the war, but their role has remained largely auxiliary. In recent years, the Russian Armed Forces have increasingly relied on ballistic missiles and long-range drones instead. This trend is partly due to the vulnerability of cruise missiles to enemy air defences and fighter aircraft, and partly due to a shortage of missiles.

From the first year of the war, bombers have been vulnerable to attacks on their airbases. Previous long-range drone strikes by Ukraine have already damaged or destroyed several Tu-22 bombers and one Tu-95. As a result, Russia’s military command began relocating these aircraft to remote airbases in Siberia and on the Kola Peninsula.

Experts doubt that the latest sabotage operation—reportedly involving truck-mounted drone launchers—will fundamentally change Russia’s approach to deploying long-range aviation in the conflict with Ukraine.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence issued the following statement regarding the attacks on airfields:
“Today, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack using FPV drones against airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. At the military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions, all terrorist attacks were repelled.”

The ministry did not provide any information regarding the number of aircraft destroyed or damaged.

By Tamilla Hasanova