It was a highly secret business designed about 18 months. With Code name ‘Spider tissue’executed with devastating results yesterday afternoon and was as bold as genius.
And as the Volodimir Zelenski, A few hours before the Ukrainian and Russian representatives meeting for negotiations in its capital Turkey, Constantinople, Today, the attack on his irreplaceable nuclear bombers Vladimir Putin “It will undoubtedly stay in the books of History.”
OR attack exactly 29 years after Ukraine handed over dozens of the same strategic bombers in Russia, together With up to 2,000 strategic nuclear heads and 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles in exchange for the promise that they will not be attacked, according to the Budapest Memorandum. In their boldest attack to date in the war, the Ukrainian Special Forces have smuggled in Russia 117 Drones First Face Kamikai (FPV) – which allow pilots to control them remotely through live broadcasting.
Then came the mobile wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden apartments in which small flying weapons were hidden.
They were loaded on political trucks heading for hostile territory, with their hired local drivers not knowing what they were carrying.
Finally, yesterday afternoon, with all trucks being in the range of five airports stretching from northern Russia to Siberia – a safe 2,500 miles from Ukraine – they hit.
The roofs of the wooden cabins opened from a distance and the FPV drones took off.
With the help of cameras mounted on the front, unmanned aircraft loaded with rockets headed directly to Russia’s expensive bombers.
Footage showed damaged enemy planes in the flames in the landing corridor, and last night Ukrainian security sources claimed to have destroyed 41 aircraft worth about 1.5 billion pounds.
These, they say, include Tu-95 and tu-22m capable nuclear power, as well as the A-50 “mainstay” surveillance aircraft, About £ 250,000,000, which is used as a radar and administration center, of which Russia is believed to have only about ten in operation.
The “main supports” are crucial for coordinating Russian fighter jets and air defense, which means that this will have seriously interfered with Putin’s war effort.
Moscow It has long stopped producing any of these aircraft, which means that, if confirmed, these assets will not be able to be replaced.
There are only about 120 Tu-95 and tu-22m in operation and is vital to its night bombardment Putin in Ukraine.
They had moved to the bases thousands of miles away from Ukraine, far from the range of Storm Shadows and Atacms donated by the West, which have up to 185 miles.
FPVs, which can reach just 19 kilometers, would be the last thing they would have in the minds of the Russians.
Mr Zelenski claimed last night that the operation rejected one -third of Russia’s strategic bombers and that it was conducted under the auspices of its intelligence services.
He said: “The most interesting is that the” office “of our business on Russian territory was right next to the FSB headquarters in one of their areas.”
“Overall, 117 drones were used in the operation, with a corresponding number of drones involved, and 34% of the strategic rockets parked on air bases were hit. We will continue this project. “
Military blogger Roman Aliehin said the incident would remain in history as “Russia’s Pearl Harbor” – a reference to the Japanese attack on the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter World War II.
But experts also compared to the SAS raid in 1942 at Sidi Haneish Airport in Egypt, when the select British commandos put 40 Luftwaffe aircraft out of action using a machine -equipped jeep.
While the attack was not a decisive moment in the desert war, it greatly strengthened the British morale and interrupted the axis supply chain in North Africa.
It was also one of the decisive events that contributed to the forging of the legendary SAS prestige.
The former pilot of raf and military analyst Mikey Kay told BBC : “The Russians would never expect that. I mean, they are genius, if one thinks only the devastating effect he had on Putin’s strategic assets. “
Philip O’Braen, a professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, said the raid was “the most remarkable and successful business of the war”.
He told the Times: “This is a big blow to the Russian strategic air force, which is difficult to overestimate. We do not know what the Russian reaction will be, but we can assume it will be violent. “