DRONE after drone can be seen hammering Russia’s nuclear bomber fleet and turning it into flaming wrecks, new footage released by Ukraine shows.
Operation Spiderweb can now astonishingly be seen in the clearest picture yet as 35 of the kamikaze craft spiral down onto the doomsday planes.
Kyiv’s daring raid destroyed 41 Russian planes – costing an estimated $7bn (£5.4bn) to Moscow’s coffers and humiliating Vladimir Putin.
Recently unveiled footage, as Ukraine intensifies pressure on Vlad, captures the destruction of numerous drones, leaving bombers aflame on the runway.
Kamikaze drones line up their target and then spiral down onto the planes.
Footage cuts out just as the drones blow themselves up.
But other drones from the swarm already in the air capture the moments wings, cabins and fuselage are bombed.
One clip shows a drone descending down onto a bomber, as an identical one can be seen burning in a heap behind it.
Another, shows a row of planes burning in a line along the side of the runway.
Several drones are able to fly so close to the planes without any Russian defences that they can land on them.
Red and orange flames erupt into black smoke on the runways as the next craft in the swarm looks for its target.
Ukraine’s intelligence agency, the SBU, executed this bold mission utilizing 117 drones to strike Tu-95MS and Tu-22M strategic bombers, as well as A-50 surveillance aircraft.
The fresh drone strike footage comes after other footage emerged on Wednesday showing the trucks carrying the craft beginning the operation.
Clueless lorry drivers then parked the containers next to Russian airbases – where they sat and waited in plain sight.
Unassuming shipping containers positioned along roadsides and grassy areas had gone unnoticed until their tops abruptly opened and unleashed swarms of drones.
Russian civilians stood in awe as they saw the drones zoom out of the containers and head in the direction of the bases.
The targeted air bases were: Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region, Belaya in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, Dyagilevo in Ryazan region, and Ivanovo-Severny in Ivanovo region.
Footage caught one truck self destruct as Russian civilians climbed into it.
Each of the 117 drones had its own dedicated pilot and Russia had little defences to protect its bases and stop them.
The covert drone plot – 18 months in the planning – targeted four airfields deep inside Russia, and is reminiscent of the most daring raids of WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis.
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw the operation and said: “It’s genuinely satisfying when something I authorized a year and six months ago comes to fruition and deprives Russians of over forty units of strategic aviation.
“We will continue this work.”
In Putin’s first appearance since the attack, the tyrant did not mention the attack.
Instead, in a meeting with officials, he branded Zelensky’s government as “terrorists” for killing civilians.
Something the Kremlin dictator has done on an industrial scale in Ukraine’s cities.
Putin talked about attacks by Ukraine on Russia’s rail network – which led to two train crashes and killing civilians.
Satellite pictures have also confirmed the destruction – with burnt wrecks of ash and metal left lying on the tarmac.
Some debris has been hastily removed – perhaps in an attempt to conceal the scale of the destruction.
Despite the humiliating blow, Putin has laid out ridiculous demands for peace in Ukraine.
The deranged tyrant’s negotiators said an end to the war would only be agreed if Kyiv surrenders huge chunks of territory and accepts limits on the size of its army.
Despite being left red-faced by the mammoth assault, Putin’s mouthpieces shamelessly gave his terms for a ceasefire during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
Its first section contained Moscow’s “basic parameters of a final settlement”.
The sham proposal demands Ukraine withdraw its troops from four eastern regions that Russia only partly occupies at the moment.
It also ordered that the international community recognise Crimea as Russia’s sovereign territory – after they annexed the peninsula in 2014.
Who is The Spider?
By James Halpin, foreign news reporter
It remains unclear who quarterbacked Ukraine’s incredible drone strike operation for their spy agency – the SBU.
But Vladimir Putin’s goons have accused a Ukrainian ex-DJ of being the spy behind Operation Spiderweb.
Desperate to save face, Russian war bloggers have named the man they think ran Ukraine’s operation inside the the country as Artem Timofeev.
Artem, 37, is a former Ukrainian DJ and is believed by the sleuths to have owned the lorries used to carry the containers to the strikes.
One pro-Russian blogger said: “Artem is now wanted in connection with a terrorist attack in Irkutsk region.
“Four lorries were registered in his name, and one of them was the source of the drones that launched [in an attack on a Putin airbase].”
Artem’s wife Ekaterina Timofeeva, 34, is also suspected to have aided him.
According to pro-Kremlin Russian media, Ekaterina describes herself as a “witch” and is the author of B-list erotic novels.
Read more here.
