1mo ago

'Russian bombers are burning en masse' — Ukraine's SBU drones hit 'more than 40' aircraft in mass attack, source claims

'Russian bombers are burning en masse' — Ukraine's SBU drones hit 'more than 40' aircraft in mass attack, source says

An operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has hit "more than 40" Russian bombers at air bases "in the rear of the Russian Federation," a source in the agency told the Kyiv Independent on June 1.

"Enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia — this is the result of a special operation by the SBU," the source said.

Video provided by the source shows what appears to be a row of heavy bomber aircraft on fire at an undisclosed location.

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1mo ago

'Russian bombers are burning en masse' — Ukraine's SBU drones hit 'more than 40' aircraft in mass attack, source claims

kyivindependent.com /enemy-bombers-are-burning-en-masse-ukraines-sbu-drones-hit-more-than-40-russian-aircraft/

118 comments

And that, ladies and gentlemen (and everyone else), may be entire Russian strategic bomber fleet, one that has been terrorizing Ukrainian cities for years now.
Every time they got their ass kicked - like when Kerch bridge was blown up or Moskva was sunk - you'd be sure to expect a bombing run at night. That was their temper tantrum weapon, and one that simply terrorized our people, Kyiv and outskirts had it really bad last few weeks. And now it may be gone.
- According to world directory of modern aircraft, this comprises 33% of Russian bomber fleet of 120: https://www.wdmma.org/russian-air-force.php. Not the entire fleet, but a significant loss for Russia.
  
  Losing 1/3 of your bombers in one attack means you're going to be a lot more careful with the remaining ones though. They lost a significant chunk of their reactionary forces in one go.
  Russia has already been fighting a lot longer than they planned and have taken much heavier losses. The only reason they're still going at all is Putin's ego and inability to admit any mistakes.
  
  Oh, yep, SBU just officially announced that same number. My mistake.
  
  We don't know how many of those were in operational condition though.
- one that has been terrorizing Ukrainian cities for years now.
  No, that's not how strategic bombers are used. Not in our time.
  These bombers were part of the "dead hand", an element of those nuclear threats Russian officials sometimes make.
  Maybe some missiles were being launched from them from time to time, but I doubt even that.
  That was their temper tantrum weapon, and one that simply terrorized our people, Kyiv and outskirts had it really bad last few weeks. And now it may be gone.
  You must know better, but I've read they are using Geran drone swarms more and more, I suppose those are unaffected by this.
  
  Usually getting a notification that strategic bombers took off from Olenya meant setting an alarm in 3 hours (it's usually at night too) to go to shelter. They take off, fly to Caspian sea, and each launches a few dozen guided rockets at Ukraine.
  There were almost 200 confirmed take offs from Olenya. So basically every week they have been bombing Ukrainian cities with guided rockets.
  
  Russia uses Tu-95's to launch cruise missiles. This is from late March:
  It was later revealed that 11 Tu-95MS bombers fired 29 cruise missiles of the Kh-101/Kh-555 type at Ukraine.
  https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/tu-95-bomber-same-age-as-putin-used-in-today-1711015673.html
  
  You think they just sit on the runway until someone needs to drop a nuke? So, when Trump redeployed our B-2s to the Indian Ocean, he must've been preparing to nuke the Houthis?
  
  These attacks will have dealt a significant blow to Russia's aerial cruise missile strike capability.
  Tu-95 bombers, which are among the type of aircraft that have been destroyed, are said to have launched a large-scale Kh-101 missile attack on Ukraine earlier this year. They have been used extensively since the full-scale invasion of February 2022 and so are a vital target for the Ukrainian military. - BBC
  https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cgrg7kelk45t
Clever and economical, and 100% high value military targets. I wish the guys who pulled this off, all the luck they can have. :)
It is possible that Russia's selection of AWACS planes (about 10 left) decreased even more.
The "sheds" were more like wooden boxes. They had a fake roof, the upper layer of which a mechanism could remove. Between the roof beams - "nests" for drones. This cargo was given for transport to ordinary truck companies. There's even a video where cops have detained a trucker while drones are taking off from his truck and heading towards Belaya airfield, ordinarily unreachable to Ukrainian drones since it's 4000 km away. I'm afraid the trucker will be facing some hard times. I hope they understand he was deceived, though, and eventually let him go.
- Yeah, about that trucker, he's fucked. It's not his fault but he's definitely collateral damage here as Russia typically doesn't take kindly on messengers with bad news, let alone an innocent trucker who accidentally towed in the apocalypse.
Best news of the week. I am in my happy place now, thank you.
- Mr. Rogers would 100% approve of this.
It's not only what they did, but how they did it.
First of all the loss of this aircraft is substantial. They don't have many more of these aircraft and likely not all are operational at every time, especially now when it's hard to get parts. And these planes are full of western parts.
And another thing, is not like Russia can throw everything at Ukraine, it's got other borders to watch.
The second part is how they did it. They snuck into Russia with weapons and carried an embarrassing blow against a country that is basically fighting this war to keep its status as a super power. And this country that they don't even consider as a country did this to them from the inside. Thats just weak and it's there for everyone to see. This is shouting for everyone to hear: Russia is no super power, it's no power at all.
- Just to put it in perspective, Wikipedia is currently listing the "before being destroyed" numbers, along with a note of "obsolete source".
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Russian_military_aircraft
  Before this attack, their bomber force was:
  Tu-22M: 56
  Tu-95: 47
  Tu-160: 22
  It's apparently the first two that got hit most. 40 total gone is a significant chunk of their whole bomber force, and they ain't going to be able to replace them.
  
  Although, first confirmations...
- " They snuck into Russia with weapons and carried an embarrassing blow"
  Like us after 9/11?
  " Russia is no super power, it’s no power at all."
  And if that's true, why do we need NATO? For the group hugs and crying?
  You are spewing the same kind of propaganda the other side says about you.
  
  It's a bad day to be a Putin apologist. How's the weather in St. Petersburg today?
  None of what you said is relevant or coherent. 9/11 was an attack against civilians by terrorists. This was an attack against military targets by state actors at war. NATO exists for soft and hard power projection, and to discourage intra-state conflict within Europe. Further, the weakness of the Russian Military as contrasted by their posturing has been stark. I don't personally believe Russia remains a superpower, with their ability to project power now restricted to digital battlefields and hard power only adjacent to their borders.
  
  Nato will exist long after Russia has crumbled 😘
  
  And if that’s true, why do we need NATO?
  Because even a destitute regional power can still bombard your cities, kill your civilians, and occupy your territory if they're willing to suffer the results.
  
  I don't care for comparisons, but the comparison to 9/11 is not really accurate.
  This is a war between neighbouring countries, one of which calls itself a super power, yet has not only completely failed to achieve it's goals, it has depleted itself doing it. It has practically destroyed all it's weapons, which were before the war thought of as limitless, it has reduced it's gas pump economy to ashes, it has destroyed it's status and already lost it's sphere of influence in Syria and elsewhere and ... wings wheel above in silent loops.... If you know what I mean.
  NATO is of course needed beyond Russia, stupid question. Plus Russia still has nukes, which would be safer if Russian state somehow survives this war.
  What I'm saying is no propaganda, just a very very sober assessment of the current situation.
  Russia has lost immediately when it was clear, that it cannot take Ukraine. It's perceived status as a super power went down the drain and nobody is taking it seriously anymore. It cannot project power, it cannot hold a sphere of influence.
Im hearing bridges and submarines also. They did this perfectly. By not talking to a known Russian asset in the whitehouse.
- Zelenskyy when Trump calls:
Judging by Russian TG, they are not exaggerating one bit.
Also rumors of a sub base getting hit, even though one can say today subs Russia has are all tracked.
I wonder about missile silos - if any of them were still operational, maybe they've been all sabotaged long ago (or rotted by themselves), and we didn't know simply because it's not as visible as burning strategic bombers in the midst of a day.
So apparently Russian regime just got more willing to negotiate.
Which may be kinda good news, because fewer troubles means more attention to each particular one, so the degree of bullshit elsewhere might fall too.
- First, I am not a Russia fan or apologist.
  …But the Soviets made some good shit, often with the philosophy of “big and simple,” but often well engineered, too. Soyuz has been so reliable it’s unreal, hence it sent astronauts from around the world to space for decades because nothing else was dependable enough.
  They did tons of real, oldschool nuclear testing, not simulations like newer powers. They knew what they were doing.
  Hence, asserting most of Russia’s warheads are duds is quite an assumption. It’s quite possible. But there’s enough of a track record for the threat to be very real.
  
  …But the Soviets made some good shit, often with the philosophy of “big and simple,” but often well engineered, too.
  Of which a disproportionate share was Ukrainian. Valentin Hlushko's engine shot Gagarin into space, Sergei Korolev designed the Soyuz, and Soyuz' successor, Zenith, is Ukrainian.
  And that's just rockets. Ukraine designed and built Russia's only aircraft carrier, and their flagship (the Moskva), as well as the missiles that promoted it to submarine.
  Ukraine also did the bulk of the heavy lifting fighting back the Nazis. And they're certainly out-innovating and out-engineering Russia right now when it comes to drones.
  That's not to say that Russia is completely incapable and they have no scientists or engineers at all, but this equation of "The Soviets did it, so it's Russian" is very misleading.
  
  With the warheads its not an engineering issue, the fissile material simply stops being viable after a while and you can't engineer around that, so the question is less about quality and more about if anyone ever replaced that stuff, or if it was replaced if that fissile material was of high enough quality and not say, a block of wood and a new yacht.
  
  I agree about older Soviet engineering, it's a bit of a result of digital automation being less available due to domestic computer research being shot down politically in favor of copying IBM and DEC, and also having worse abilities at minimization.
  Hence Soviet engineering is how you'd approach building a spacefaring civilization with a slide rule as the baseline instrument, and mostly analog components of everything. That does feel cool.
  About warheads - there's an issue of half-life with nuclear warheads, so that they "rot" is not in doubt, the question is how good the maintenance was.
- Whether or not Russia's nukes are functional is immaterial. They know that they don't know which ones work. They also know they no longer have MAD on their end. All they can do is saber rattle with them, because if they ever try to use them, they know that there is a very good chance that the nukes will fail to detonate, for a variety of reasons, and the immediate retaliation from every other nuclear power, except China, would be the end of Russia.
  
  Well. A lesson to everybody thinking corruption and rattling of sabers are a good combination.
- Missile silos are sadly, ridiculously hardened. You may have to hit a single door with 10+ drones to get through.
  Aircraft are perfect targets, since an aircraft must be light and cannot be hidden underground too easily.
  Also, missile silos aren't being used to attack Ukraine. Knocking one out would have no effect on the safety of people in Ukraine. Aircraft however, are used daily / weekly. Tangible benefit is immediate - less air raids, less missiles fired, less glide bombs dropped.
  It would also be sweet if a shortage of radar planes occurred - Russia not knowing what's happening in its airspace would allow Ukrainian long-range drones to reach where they must.
  
  since an aircraft must be light and cannot be hidden underground too easily.
  With the kind of money Putin has at his disposal, one could have underground reinforced concrete hangars even in permafrost, would cost less than those yachts or palaces or sports events.
  It would also be sweet if a shortage of radar planes occurred - Russia not knowing what’s happening in its airspace would allow Ukrainian long-range drones to reach where they must.
  These are all a system, I think.
  But at the same time, about missile silos - they'd really do something about them first, because imagine you are a psychopath usurper thinking yourself to be some kind of princeps, and you've lost much of your visibility and of your long range bombers and apparently of your subs. Who knows what the people getting orders will think. What if they receive a launch order and just do that.
Camera drone just casually videoing after the bombings? Whoever was sleeping during drone jamming duty is not getting dessert rations.
- It probably would make sense to jam drones around these bases, but I think that Russians simply didn't believe there would be any enemy drones 6000 km away from Ukraine.
  
  russia is so fucking big, it's really weird that someone would think: "i want more!!! and i'm willing to destroy everything and everyone for it" 🤷🏼‍♂️
  
  Apparently these drones didn't use drone RFs they were using cell towers to fly.
- I read elsewhere that these were autonomous drones. It likely wouldn’t be terribly difficult to program a drone to fly to a specific location, look for something shaped like an aircraft, then fly into it.
  You could also program one or two drones to fly to a specific location, record video for 5-10 minutes, then fly to a different landing zone where one person is waiting to recover the video.
  
  The article said they’re FPV so I’m not sure how autonomous they were. Got another link?
- I got from another article that they used the Russian communication network that is used for phones.
- Haven't they been using fiber optic drones to avoid jamming?
  
  Not this far from the front lines. This was in the Russian rear.
  
  They have, but this does not look like a fiber optic scenario.
  Guesses: either:
  autonomous navigation by terrain and compass (assuming that satnav systems are denied), or
  one swarm member using a ridiculously good (satellite?) radio to supply other swarm members with guidance from Ukraine, or
  guidance via Russian mobile phone networks.
  
  Yeah, but you need to be pretty close to do that as you’re physically tethered to it. And I would like to think it’d be risky to deploy and use in this case - but could be wrong.
Bro I love Ukrainians so much and the respect for you HEROES is astonishing, SKY HIGH LOVE YOU GUYS KEEP IT UP !!!
The SBU claims that 34 per cent (‼️‼️) of Russia's fleet of bombers, with a combined value of more than €6 billion, has been eliminated with this operation 'Spiderweb'. The figures cannot be independently confirmed because Russia and Ukraine are both silent on military losses for strategic reasons.
May the spiders crawl all over putin and eat him alive.
- Do you also love Palestinians as much? Same fight?
  
  Russia invaded Palestine too? Damn.
  
  What about people in Sudan? There's a war everywhere in the world and will be untill we die probably, offcourse I want democracy and freedom for everyone... Thats why Im commenting how proud I am of Ukranians for standing their grounds and showing this much strength!!!!
  
  2/10 ragebait
  
  Why would you assume that they don't?
  
  Insane that people would want Muslims to triumph over the Jews. It's between cutting off your head with two eyes vs cutting off your head with the one eye.
Some of the best news I’ve heard in quite some time!
Fuck 'em up!
- Kick his ass Seabass!
This is going to have the secondary effect of exploding rats but times a thousand.
During WWII the brits planted dead rats filled with explosives around german facilities, as it was common practice to simply throw dead rats into the boiler fireboxes, where these rats in questions would explode and hopefully deal damage to important equipment. Almost no real damage was done but simply finding the rats was enough to make the Germans so paranoid that the extra caution and paranoia did more damage than the rats ever would have if they had gone undiscovered (and thrown into boilers as planned)
- With the 9/11 reference above, it had a similar effect on airport security. The TSA has been making traveling hell ever since and I'm not sure if they've actually stopped any real threats (cursory search says nope).
  
  And they've consistently failed to catch threats in tests.
  Security theatre is expensive though.
- I love this, may putin and russians go insane from paranoia hehehe :3
Oh no how unfortunate.
- Oh no! Anyway....
If this is true, if Ukraine really has dealt as much damage to the Russian bomber fleet as they claim they have, then this is tremendous.
- They filmed everything, you can see for yourself
Fuck the blyats.
Too bad this attack probably cannot done another time. And another and another.
- If it's true this was 34% of Russian bombers, they could hopefully do two more.
- If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Ukraine over the past few years it’s that they are incredibly resourceful. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they have other novel attacks in various stages of planning. Of course they now have to wait and see how Russia changes their defenses as a result of this attack…
I'm always surprised that you'd leave stuff lying around like that when at war.
- 2500+ miles from the front line? where would you stash your arsenal of strategic bombers?
  
  Exactly. The real story here isn't that they destroyed a bunch of bombers, destruction of the enemy's supplies and materiel is normal warfare. The real story is that Ukraine wasn't just being defensive, they went on an aggressive long range offensive, deep into Russian territory. The underlying threat is that if the Ukrainians can hit the Russian bombers, they can hit Russian cities. Russia has been bombing Ukrainian civilian targets, and Ukraine has now proven that they could do it too, if they choose to.
  
  Underground xmen style or submarine carrier is the only solution I can think of besides the obvious cloaking field.
  
  Underground, 5 miles away from the "official" position, while I put decoys everywhere.
- Its russia

118 comments