Ukraine launched a blistering attack on Russia yesterday using FPV drones hidden deep inside Russian territory.
PetaPixel has previously reported on how Ukraine has utilized cheap kamikaze FPV drones, the kind more typically used by photography and racing enthusiasts, but have become crucial in the war against Russia.
Last night, an unprecedented attack by Ukraine targeted Russian air bases is one of the heaviest blows of the war. Axios reports that the operation codenamed “spider web” was planned by Ukraine’s security service for a year and a half.
117 attack drones launched from trucks covertly placed near Russian air bases, some were thousands of miles from the Ukrainian border in Siberia.
This will be in textbooks.
Ukraine secretly delivered FPV drones and wooden mobile cabins into Russia. The drones were hidden under the roofs of the cabins, which were later mounted on trucks.At the signal, the roofs opened remotely. Dozens of drones launched directly from the… pic.twitter.com/sJyG3WyYYI
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) June 1, 2025
Video footage shows Ukrainian drone operators calmly picking their target and other videos show the planes ablaze. 40 Russian bomber planes were hit which President Zelensky says accounts for 34 percent of Russia’s strategic bombers.
Almost 5000km from Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone operator takes his time in choosing the perfect point of impact to destroy this Tu-95 strategic bomber that regularly rains missiles on the cities of Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/CqDcHqY35I
— Kyiv Insider (@KyivInsider) June 1, 2025
The scale of Ukraine’s success is undeniable: drones built and launched from inside the country struck one-third of Russia’s tactical bombers in hours, using cheap, improvised tech.
An estimated $7B in aircraft destroyed in what may be one of the most successful intelligence ops… pic.twitter.com/8vdrLS0nkD
— Shaun Pinner (@olddog100ua) June 2, 2025
The Russian planes have been used to attack Ukrainian cities, says a Ukrainian official. “The people who assisted us were withdrawn from Russian territory before the operation, they are now safe,” Zelensky adds.
Today, a brilliant operation was carried out — on enemy territory, targeting only military objectives, specifically the equipment used to strike Ukraine. Russia suffered significant losses — entirely justified and deserved.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 1, 2025
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has propelled drones to the forefront of warfare. According to a recent article in The Atlantic, drones now guide troops, deliver payloads, resupply soldiers, and map minefields.
Most of the drones are homemade in Ukraine with the “People’s Drone” project launched last year. Participants can take a free engineering course to learn how to assemble an FPV drone in their home.
One Ukrainian drone pilot tells The Atlantic that, “In 2022, all operations involved artillery, armed vehicles, and infantry. The major battles were about controlling height to observe more and react faster. In all three categories, Russia surpassed Ukraine. To support artillery so they are more precise, we started using observation drones, called ‘wedding drones,’ which photographers often use at weddings. Later, we started using kamikaze drones and bombers. Then the land drones appeared, tasked with delivering and even evacuating the wounded. In 2022, it was still possible to create trenches in the field and successfully defend them. Today, being there means death for 100 percent of people. Nobody any longer pursues mass attacks using armored vehicles, as they’d be destroyed before they approach the front line. The infantry creates its positions when the drones cannot see it.”
What started as a technology to capture photos from novel angles has descended into being at the forefront of a brutal war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands.