The bold drone attack in Ukraine sends a critical message to Russia

It is difficult to exaggerate the absolute audacity – or ingenuity – that went to Ukraine’s attack at the country’s level of the Russian Air Force.

We cannot verify the Ukrainian allegations that the attacks resulted in damage of $ 7 billion (5.2 billion pounds), but it is clear that the “Spider’s Web” was, at least, a great coup for advertising.

Ukrainians have already compared to other prominent military successes since the full invasion of Russia, including the sinking of the Russian Black Sea fleet, Mosca, and the bombing of the Kirch Bridge, both in 2022, as well as a missile attack on Sivasop the port the following year.

If we judge the details that were leaked to the media by Military Intelligence in Ukraine, SBU, then the last process is the most detailed achievement so far.

In an operation that was said to have taken 18 months to prepare, dozens of drones were smuggled to Russia, stored in special compartments on charging trucks, and pushed at least four separate sites, thousands of miles away, and they were launched away from nearby air boats.

Defense analyst Sirhi Kozan told Ukrainian television Ukrainian: “There has been no such intelligence in the world.”

“These strategic bombers are able to make long -term strikes against us,” he said. “There are only 120 of them and we hit 40. This is an incredible character.”

It is difficult to assess the damage, but the Ukrainian military blogger Oleksandr Kovalenko says that even if the planes, driving and control are not destroyed, the effect is enormous.

He wrote on Telegram channel: “The extent of the damage is that the Russian industrial military complex, in its current state, is unlikely to be able to restore it in the near future.”

He said that the strategic bombers carrying the missiles concerned, TU-95, TU-22 and Tu-160 are no longer under production. Fixing it will be difficult, and replacing it is impossible.

He said that the fastest TU-1660 loss would be particularly perceived.

“Today, the Russian aviation forces lost not only from their rare planes, but in fact two of the neutralities in the herd,” he wrote.

In addition to the material damage, which may or not to be large like the evaluation of analysts here, the Spider network sends another message to Russia only but also to the Western allies of Ukraine.

My colleague Svyatoslav Khomenko, who writes for the Ukrainian BBC service, remembers a recent meeting with a government official in Kiev.

The official was frustrated.

“The biggest problem,” the official told svyatoslav, “is that the Americans convinced themselves that we have already lost war. It is this assumption that everything else follows.”

Ukrainian defense journalist Elijah Bonomarmo, who is published on X, puts an indicative signal to President Volodimir Zelensky with Donald Trump.

“This is what happens when a proud country that is attacked to all of these listen to:” Ukraine is only six months left. “

More Pithy was a tweet from the Ukraine Chamber Journal, which proudly announced, “It turned out that Ukraine has some cards after all. Today I played Zelinski, the king of drones.”

This, then, is the message that Ukrainian delegates hold when they arrive in Istanbul for a new round of ceasefire negotiations with Kremlin representatives: Ukraine is still in the battle.

The government official told svyatoslav khomenko that the Americans “start behaving as if their role in negotiating for us the best of surrender conditions.”

“Then they are insulted when we do not thank them. But of course we do not do that – because we do not think that we have been defeated.”

Despite Russia’s slow progress, which does not calm down through the battlefields in Donbas, Ukraine tells Russia, Trump administration, and not to reject Kiev’s prospects easily.