
Operation Spiderweb: Satellite images show Russian bombers destroyed in massive Ukrainian drone attack
Carried out on Sunday, 'Operation Spiderweb' was planned out over the course of 18 months and executed by Ukraine's SBU security service. It saw truckloads of drones smuggled thousands of kilometres into Russian territory before they were unleashed close to airbases to destroy as many aircraft as possible, officials in Kyiv said.
In a rare confirmation of such losses, Russia said Ukraine attacked airfields across five regions, causing several aircraft to catch fire. 'The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions, Murmansk and Irkutsk,' Moscow's defence ministry claimed on Sunday.
New satellite images from Capella Space, a satellite company, took a before-and-after view of the airfield located in Irkutsk, a Siberian region.
The images from 2 June, a day after Ukraine's operation, feature the dismantled debris and ashen remains of several aircraft located along the runway of the Belaya military air base or parked in protective revetments nearby.
The latest images are from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites which direct energy beams at the Earth and detect echoes, allowing identification of small topographical details.
Experts have said that the destruction seen in these images confirm Russia suffered the loss of multiple aircraft.
"Based on the debris visible, comparison to recent satellite images and released drone footage from Telegram posted to Twitter, I can see the destruction of several aircraft," said John Ford, a research associate at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
He added that the SAR satellite imagery seen by him purportedly shows the remnants of two destroyed Tu-22 Backfires – long-range, supersonic strategic bombers that have been used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine.
The SAR images and the footage of the strikes posted on social media also indicated that four strategic Tu-95 heavy bombers had been destroyed or severely damaged, Mr Ford added.
In Kyiv, Ukraine's SBU security agency said that the operation resulted in the loss of a total of 41 Russian warplanes.
Explosive-laden drones were hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds, which were then loaded onto trucks and driven to the perimeter of the air bases, according to a Ukrainian security official.
The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely-activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said.
The Independent has not verified the claims.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack 'absolutely brilliant', lauding the operation which hit Russian targets up to 4,300km (2,670 miles) from the war's frontline. The preliminary assessment from the Ukrainian military confirmed damages to 12 additional aircraft after the operation over the weekend.
"After processing additional information from various sources and verifying it ... we report that the total (Russian) losses amounted to 41 military aircraft, including strategic bombers and other types of combat aircraft," the SBU said in an update.
It added that the damage amounted to $7bn, and 34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers at Russia's main airfields were hit.
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Reuters
27 minutes ago
- Reuters
Ukraine's Catholics tend to faithful driven out by Russian occupation
ZAPORIZHZHIA, July 24 (Reuters) - About 25 miles (40 km) from a slowly advancing Russian frontline, a community of Ukrainian Catholics is tending to people exiled from occupied territory to the country's eastern city of Zaporizhzhia. Church members deliver humanitarian aid to Ukrainian troops and villages near the frontline and nuns offer comfort to families and especially children fleeing the war. "When kids come, especially little ones, they feel safe and cling to us, needing hugs and warmth. New kids always need that embrace," said Sister Lukia Murashko, the mother superior at Zaporizhzhia's Order of Saint Basil the Great monastery. The monastery provides a cheerful environment adorned with Ukrainian flags and greeting cards from soldiers. In June, Sister Lukia and two other nuns made a cake for the 15th birthday of Evhen, a boy who fled the occupied city of Melitopol with his mother and now lives in a drab hostel in Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a Ukrainian denomination loyal to the Vatican named for its rites similar to eastern Orthodox churches, has over 4 million followers in Ukraine and is the country's largest branch of Catholicism. Orthodox Christianity remains the most popular religion but has declined during the past decade amid tensions over ties to Moscow. Meanwhile, the Catholic Church has grown and its followers now make up 12% of the population, according to a 2024 study by the Razumkov Centre, a Ukrainian think-tank. Catholicism is traditionally predominant in Ukraine's West, but has been growing in the East of the country, much of which Russia claims as its own, including lands it occupied in 2014 and in the 2022 full-scale invasion. Moscow does not control Zaporizhzhia city and it has become a centre for internally displaced Ukrainians from occupied territories. 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Father Oleksandr Bohomaz, 36, served in Melitopol, a coastal city in Zaporizhzhia region, for nine months after Russia took the town on March 1 that year along with two other priests, caring for four parishes and faithful who could not flee after authorities cracked down on the church there, he said. "We travelled around, serving as much as possible until they eventually deported us," he told Reuters. During his time under occupation, he said, the authorities stormed church services, collecting fingerprints from worshippers. In December 2022, he was interrogated and taken to a checkpoint where he was told to cross to the territory under Ukrainian control. Other Catholic priests in the Zaporizhzhia region suffered harsher treatment. In November 2022, Russia's troops raided a Greek Catholic church in Berdiansk, a city about 100 km along the coast from Melitopol. Two priests, Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, were arrested on illegal weapons charges. 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IRFBA said more than 630 religious buildings had been damaged during the Russian occupation, including 596 Christian churches. Reuters was unable to independently verify IRFBA's claims, which have been repeated by Ukrainian officials. Russia's Foreign Ministry has described the alliance's reports as based on partisan and biased information, and said any actions were taken in accordance with the law. The Ukrainian Catholic Donetsk Exarchate, the body of the church in much of East Ukraine, has operated in exile in Zaporizhzhia since 2014. Out of 77 parishes, 36 are under control of the Russian authorities, it said. Stepan Meniok, 75, who was the bishop heading the Donetsk Exarchate until his retirement in 2024, said that when Russia-led separatists took over the eastern city of Donetsk in 2014 they drove him from the diocese's seat. He settled in Zaporizhzhia. 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The Guardian
27 minutes ago
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
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