Repost: NSJ, 'Ukraine’s Drone Attack'
I can’t help but repeat: you need to look at things through multiple lenses. In physics, we observe phenomena as wave-like and particle-like. In philosophy, you’ve got stoic, deont, util and endless other frames. Science history, anthropology, root cause analysis, and predicting consequences (what happens next?) all matter. If you only have one lens, you’re blind.
Julian McBride is someone I respect. He deals with Instagram troles with blunt honesty, reminding them, “You know less than me.” While we don’t always see eye to eye—especially when it comes to voting—I value military voices when it comes to military matters. I did not serve; he did. Too often, war gets filtered solely through DEI checklists or humanitarian appeals. Like it or not, war is a tactical reality. Whether you think Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was justified by bogus NATO hysteria, or you stand with Ukraine—a more secular, progressive nation defending itself—military insight matter. Money and military tactics win war.
Julian’s article, which I’m reposting, details Operation Spider’s Web: a meticulously planned Ukrainian drone strike on June 1, 2025, that targeted Russian airbases deep inside Russian territory. The operation, using drones smuggled in by truck and launched from hidden containers, reportedly inflicted up to $7 billion in damage to high-value bombers like the Tu-22M and Tu-95. It’s a game-changer, forcing governments to reconsider how vulnerable their infrastructure is to low-cost, high-impact attacks.
Not covered in the article is the claim that the drones were deployed by a (husband and wife) DJ and a tattooed erotic fiction writer. That detail might be trivial, but as a music lover backing Ukraine, I appreciate it. What isn’t trivial is that this bold move guarantees a brutal Russian response. So pray for more of the military incompetence we’ve come to expect from Russia. Or pray that people stop obsessing over Israel and focus on a much bigger war, with much bigger impact on the world, and around a million dead.
Follow Julian on IG: @julian_anthro2 (his last account got nuked by Instagram’s horrible moderators, who ban pro-Israel accounts on sight while ignoring the death threats and bigotted msgs we get daily).
Read the original here: https://nationalsecurityjournal.org/putin-paid-a-price-ukraines-drone-attack-shatters-what-we-think-about-war/ Taken without permission.
Su-57 Fighter From Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Putin Paid A Price: Ukraine’s Drone Attack Shatters What We Think About War
Julian McBride; Jun 2, 2025
Key Points:
Ukraine’s “Operation Spider’s Web” on June 1st, 2025, involved a sophisticated drone attack targeting multiple Russian airbases deep within Russia, including Belaya and Olenya, as well as the Northern Fleet headquarters.
-Utilizing FPV drones smuggled in via trucks and launched from concealed mobile containers, the operation reportedly inflicted significant damage (estimated $2-$7 billion) on Russian strategic assets, including Tu-22M and Tu-95 bombers.
-This daring SBU-led attack, 18 months in planning, demonstrates Ukraine’s enhanced covert capabilities and has global implications for drone warfare tactics, forcing nations to reassess the security of critical infrastructure against such low-cost, high-impact threats.
Operation Spider’s Web Against Russian Strategic Assets and Implications on Drone Warfare
On June 1st, 2025, Ukraine launched Operation Spider’s Web and successfully attacked numerous Russian airbases that hosted strategic long-range bombers and other assets. At least four airbases were attacked, with the headquarters of the Northern Fleet also struck.
Launching the drones from trucks that concealed the operation, the Russian command was unable to neutralize the drone threat, and air defense operators were unable to counteract it in time to prevent significant damage. With Ukrainian drones now able to reach all corners of Russia, not only is the Kremlin losing its aerial advantage in the war, but militaries worldwide need to prepare to adapt to the cost-effective measures drone warfare now has on strategic targets.
Operation Spider’s Web
During Operation Spider’s Web, Russian air bases in Belaya, Dyagilevo, Olenya, and Ivanovo were attacked by various first-person view drones by Ukrainian Security Services (SBU). Numerous aircraft, including the Tu-22Ms and Tu-95s, were reportedly damaged or destroyed, and the actual equipment losses could range from $2 to $7 billion.
Furthermore, drones attacked the headquarters of the Russian Northern Fleet in Severomorsk. Severomorsk hosts Russian nuclear submarines with further non-nuclear tipped cruise missiles that could damage major Ukrainian cities akin to the Black Sea Fleet before it was decimated.
Ukraine would reveal how the operation took place, which involved months of planning with complex logistical structures both in the country and Russia. The SBU first smuggled first-person view (FPV) drones through mobile wooden containers and then hidden in trucks with mobile roofs.
Using remote-controlled systems on the roofs and FPV drones, Ukrainian drone operators successfully struck numerous bases.
The Effects on Russian Forces
Depending on the severity of Operation Spider’s Web, Russia’s strategic bombing fleet, used for long-range cruise missiles against Ukrainian cities, will be deeply affected for the rest of the war. The Tu-22Ms and Tu-95s have been used extensively in the war thus far, and due to Russia’s limited production of the bombers, their stocks could be depleted depending on the number of aircraft that were damaged.
Russian retaliation against cities will now seldom be conducted by long-range bombers. If their Ministry of Defense were to continue such methods, it would have to be with the Oreshnik missiles or the SU-22/35 fleet, the latter of which is prone to being shot down by American-made Patriot batteries.
The Kremlin will now need to take more stringent and proactive measures to protect its strategic assets, as Ukrainian intelligence can now infiltrate the country and strike all key bases and regions. With logistics already stretched thin in Ukraine, Africa, Kaliningrad, and Central Asia, upgraded security measures will need more manned checkpoints and added security personnel—exacerbating Russia’s already fragile wartime economy.
Furthermore, Russia’s nuclear-capable forces and bluffs are growingly exposed. Not only did Ukraine continuously cross their ‘red lines,’ they also took out a sizable chunk of nuclear-aerial capabilities. With land-based ICBMs recently failing, Moscow’s weapons of mass destruction are now further exposed.
Ukraine Continues to Enhance Intelligence Gathering
Operation Spider’s Web shows Ukraine’s growing covert capabilities far beyond the frontlines. Taking 18 months to plan, Kyiv was able to keep the operation under wraps within a small circle, thereby avoiding leaks that Moscow could have picked up.
Over the past few years, Ukraine has upgraded its intelligence apparatus and adapted, even when Russia moved its strategic bombers and Black Sea Fleet away from the Western-supplied long-range missiles. The Trump Administration may now be persuaded to support Ukraine more, as President Volodymyr Zelensky has shown that he holds more cards than initially realized.
Furthermore, with other countries stepping up to help Ukraine, a favorable settlement on Russia’s terms now seems unlikely. Kyiv’s security apparatus has been enhanced by Japan sharing Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capabilities, which improves targeting and geospatial intelligence gathering.
Implications for Future Conflicts
The June 1st strike against Russian strategic bomber bases will have long-reaching effects on both modern conventional and unconventional warfare. Intelligence agencies and militias alike could replicate similar methods of Ukraine’s SBU.
Using a truck to conceal various FPV drones and employing them near military bases, communications centers, command centers, or political offices could become a future threat, and counterintelligence agencies will need to prepare for such scenarios. Exercises to protect critical infrastructure and assets will be practiced and assessed more in militaries and intelligence agencies.
Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan could absorb knowledge of Ukrainian tactics, as their adversaries, including China and North Korea, could also have their strategic missiles and bombers paralyzed by similar infiltration methods. Simultaneously, cruise missiles and remote-controlled drones could be concealed in freighters that adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran would adapt to with hybrid warfare methods in their threshold.
Likewise, the United States and Europe will also need to prepare hardened hangers, electronic countermeasures, and enhanced laser weapons development for drone swarms that continue to change the face of modern warfare.
Operation Spider’s Web is not only a turning point in the Russian invasion of Ukraine but a standard bearer in evolving modern warfare. Today, countries could suffer critical losses in key infrastructure, bases, and command locations without activating countermeasures quickly enough, showing how dangerous and effective FPV drones have become.
