The Ukrainian drone strike on Russia’s strategic bomber force was one of the most audacious military attacks in recent decades. Kyiv smuggled 117 drones into Mother Russia right under the noses of border guards and placed them within striking distance of five air bases where Russian strategic bombers were quartered.
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The drones were stored in “wooden houses” on top of flat-bed trucks where they remained dormant until the “Go” signal was given on Sunday.
“Social media video geolocated by CNN to seven kilometers southeast of the Belaya Air Base in Russia’s eastern Irkutsk region, appears to show a drone flying out of a wooden shed loaded onto a truck as smoke rises in the background.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X, “The planning, organization, and all the details were perfectly prepared. It can be confidently said that this was an absolutely unique operation.”
“The ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions,” Zelensky added.
Belaya Airbase is Russian Irkutsk region
Hit by suicide drones of Ukraine
Many nuke capable strategic bombers destroyedPS
Pakistan tried this India and failed massively FYI pic.twitter.com/ycvHBSRC51— Dr MJ Augustine Vinod 🇮🇳 (@mjavinod) June 1, 2025
More than 40 aircraft were destroyed, according to a Ukrainian security source. That number jibes with other reports quoted in major media. If accurate, that number represents about a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet.
Two airfields were heavily damaged. Ukraine targeted three other airfields with drones but failed to penetrate Russian defenses.
Figures on planes destroyed and successful airfield attacks should be taken with a grain of salt.
Even with limited information, military analysts said the operation ranks as a signature event on par with the sinking of the Russian flagship Moskva early in the war and the maritime drone assaults that forced the Russian Navy to largely abandon the home port of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea.
“This is a stunning success for Ukraine’s special services,” said Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for air power and technology at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
“If even half the total claim of 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed is confirmed, it will have a significant impact on the capacity of the Russian Long Range Aviation force to keep up its regular large scale cruise missile salvos against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, whilst also maintaining their nuclear deterrence and signaling patrols against NATO and Japan,” he said in an email.
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Ukraine gets an “A” for audacity and a “C+” for execution. The operation was a huge boost for Zelensky and the citizens of Ukraine, who were pummeled by Russian long-range bombers in recent weeks.
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But realistically, it was a pinprick. Russian President Vladimir Putin is not interested in propaganda sideshows. He is not going to be deflected from his course, which the Economist reports is costing him close to a million Russian lives.
The grim tally of losses comes from figures compiled by the Ukrainian general staff, leaving it open to question. But the number is not far out of line with estimates by Western intelligence services.
It also roughly tallies with attempts by Russian independent media, such as Meduza and Mediazona, to count the bodies. By this time last year, Meduza reckoned that between 106,000-140,000 Russian soldiers had died. Much of their analysis was based on inheritance records and obituaries on social media and in other outlets.
An estimate of excess mortality among Russian men based on probate records gave a figure of 165,000 by the end of 2024 with 90,000 having been added in the previous six months. Given the intensity of Russian operations for much of the past year it would not be hard to reach a figure of about 250,000 killed by now. The ratio of severely wounded to killed is thought to be about four to one, a reflection both of the severity of injuries in Ukraine and the low priority Russia gives to medical evacuation and the prompt field hospital treatment that saves lives.
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A leader who loses a million men will not be deterred by an attack of 117 drones that supposedly destroyed 40 planes. Not only did the drone strike not alter the military equation, it didn’t further the cause of peace, nor did it change the psychological conditions of the war.
It may have given the Ukrainian people hope. But is that really a good thing?
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