Operation Spider's Web: the beginning of change in the war between Russia and Ukraine

Reporter and journalist María Senovilla, a contributor to Atalayar, analysed the latest Ukrainian attacks on Russian bases and the Crimean bridge on Onda Madrid's programme ‘De cara al mundo’. 

Not even in the Mission Impossible films could it have been done better. Operation Spider's Web, a turning point in the war. María, what can you tell us? 

That's right, I think we can now talk about a new phase in this war, because what has happened this week represents a horizontal escalation of the conflict, in which Ukraine is using sabotage tactics, as if it were the Mission Impossible saga. 

However, in technical terms, Operation Spider's Web encompasses several sabotage tactics on Russian soil with strategic effects. This is not the first time Ukraine has attempted to take this war to Russian soil. These attacks began with long-range drones in August 2023, but they were only intended to target specific objectives. 

It should be noted that, until the invasion of Kursk last summer, they had never before managed to cause as much damage to Russian army resources as in this operation carried out on 1 June, Operation Spider's Web, in which they simultaneously attacked four Russian military air bases in different parts of the country, separated by thousands of kilometres, in an operation that, according to Zelensky himself, took a year and a half to plan and execute. 

Nothing like this had ever been seen before. No similar intelligence operation by Ukraine on Russian soil, and it is likely to have put a third of Putin's air fleet out of action. It is the most complex attack ever launched on Russian soil. 

Ukraine claims that 41 aircraft have been left out of action, including strategic fighter-bombers and aircraft carrying hypersonic missiles. Ukraine says that half of the aircraft attacked will not be repairable, and the way in which the attack was carried out involved the introduction of more than 120 FPV drones on Russian soil, which travelled thousands of kilometres by road in trucks, from which they emerged through the roof as they were all retractable. The drones took off in swarms to attack these aircraft, which were comfortably parked at Russian military bases, and these aircraft were also operated remotely by pilots here on Ukrainian soil. 

It should be noted that these FPV drones are not long-range drones, but operate within a radius of between 7 and 10 kilometres, which is the radius within which these trucks had to park near the four different airfields so that they could take off loaded with explosives and launch themselves in kamikaze attacks against Russian aircraft. 

When one of these drones lost signal, the pilots were in another country operating them. These drones were equipped with an artificial intelligence system that put them into automatic mode so that if the pilot lost control of the drone, the drone itself would detect the aircraft and launch itself against it. 

Visualization of the special operation "Spiderweb". pic.twitter.com/pyqfsFVJ5F

— Mila.Alien 🇺🇦 (@mila__alien) June 3, 2025

What makes the difference is that Ukraine has been carrying out these attacks against Russia with long-range drones capable of flying hundreds of kilometres, and this is the first time that an attack has been carried out in another country with short-range FPV drones, and it has been a success. 

The problem is Russia's response over the last few days. This attack was carried out one day before the second round of negotiations began in Turkey, and was intended to put Ukraine in a position of power when they sat down at the negotiating table. It has not served much purpose, because the only agreement that has been reached is a new mass exchange of prisoners of war, but no foundations have been laid, nor has Russia agreed to a ceasefire, as Ukraine has been proposing for months. 

This was not the only attack. Two days later, the Crimean bridge was attacked. On this occasion, it was also carried out by the SBU, the Ukrainian secret services, who mined the supports of this underground bridge in Kerch with 1,100 kilos of explosives, which is not enough to destroy the bridge, but enough to render much of it unusable. 

As part of the response to the Russian attacks, last night there was a new Ukrainian attack on Russian soil, this time against refineries where Russian military vehicles refuel. They reached one that was just 30 kilometres from Moscow, confirming the horizontal escalation, which is likely to continue on the part of Ukraine, because if Operation Spider's Web against these airfields began a year and a half ago, it is conceivable that it has other operations in the pipeline right now against targets in the neighbouring country. 

Many details come to mind, namely that someone is trying to pressure Putin to actually negotiate in Turkey or wherever, and is also embarrassing him considerably with regard to the Russian defence system, with its high-value strategic aircraft. Nor am I surprised that Putin's reaction has been to launch much tougher attacks than he has been launching so far. 

What this shows is that Russia felt untouchable. When those attacks began in August 2023 with those long-range drones, what Russia did was to position its strategic bases a little further back, thinking that they would not reach them. 

What it certainly did not imagine was that Ukraine would manage to get those short-range drones onto trucks up to 7 kilometres from where it has that strategic material to launch an attack. And then there is the fact that the target of the attack was those aircraft, those fighter-bombers, with which Russian forces systematically bomb Ukrainian cities every day. 

What is clear is that Ukraine has, in one fell swoop, reduced Russia's ability to attack them, as well as putting pressure on the negotiating table.