Ukraine’s 'Spider’s Web' drone strike burns over 40 Russian warplanes, Moscow calls it 'terrorist attack'

Ukrainian forces destroyed dozens of Russian warplanes on Sunday in a coordinated drone strike that penetrated deep into Russian territory hitting five military airfields and igniting aircraft including strategic bombers and surveillance planes The operation called Spider s Web took months to plan and was personally overseen by President Volodymyr Zelensky Ukraine s safeguard provision SBU commented Ukraine used small FPV drones hidden inside wooden cabins mounted on trucks When the trucks reached their targets the roofs opened by remote control and the drones launched Videos on social media revealed drones lifting off from parked trucks and striking large aircraft on the runways UKRAINE DESTROYS DOZENS OF RUSSIAN WARPLANES WITH DRONE ATTACK DEEP INSIDE RUSSIAIn a declaration on X Zelenskyy called the operation an absolutely brilliant effect and explained it was achieved solely by Ukraine He mentioned the mission took one year six months and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution and described it as our largest part long-range operation He added that our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time and thanked General Vasyl Maliuk head of the SBU for the success Zelensky mentioned particular details could not be disclosed yet but declared These are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books Ukraine is defending itself and rightly so Russia s defense ministry endorsed that airfields in five regions were attacked Murmansk Irkutsk Ivanovo Ryazan and Amur Russia called the strike a terrorist act but stated its forces repelled the attack Still the ministry admitted several aircraft caught fire Russian executives reported several individuals had been arrested Ukraine declared drones were used The SBU claimed of Russia s strategic bombers were hit and estimated the damage at billion BBC Monitoring disclosed that other Ukrainian experts gave a lower estimate of billion These numbers have not been approved The attack happened just before planned peace talks between Ukraine and Russia were set to begin Monday in Istanbul which are backed by President Donald Trump the BBC released RUSSIA LAUNCHES LARGEST AERIAL ATTACK OF UKRAINE WAR KILLING AT LEAST Ukraine says it will push for a full ceasefire the return of captured prisoners and the return of children taken to Russia Those terms have not been agreed to by Russia The White House endorsed to Fox News that the Trump administration was not informed about the attack in advance Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth who did not speak to Ukrainian agents promptly after the operation was ultimately given a full briefing and subsequent updates according to a senior defense official The administrators mentioned the blitz was highly sophisticated and that the Pentagon is unsure whether the quadcopter drones which were prepositioned in Russia in cabins and then offloaded into trucks were piloted or autonomous U S bureaucrats were skeptical of reports that up to Russian bombers were hit and supposed the number was likely between and the official commented who added it may have involved as various as five Russian airfields Military experts say the raid damaged Russia s ability to launch long-range missile attacks The bombers hit included TU- and TU- M aircraft which have been used in past strikes on Ukraine Ukraine also claimed it damaged a Russian A- radar aircraft used to direct Russian air power BBC weapons analyst Chris Partridge mentioned that because the drones were launched from inside Russia air defenses like the S- and S- had little time to react CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP The White House did not right now respond to Fox News Digital's additional request for comment Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this summary