Ukraine: Russian bombers burning ‘en masse’ at Russian airbases after drone attack

Ukraine: Russian bombers burning ‘en masse’ at Russian airbases after drone attack

Ukraine says it carried out large scale drone attacks on multiple air bases, including some thousands of miles inside Russia. It says Operation Spider Web caused $7 billion in damage. A Ukrainian military source said multiple combat planes were destroyed in the attack. Russia has confirmed there was an attack but is giving few details. CNN’s Sebastian Shukla is following the developments for us. Sebastian, what are you learning about this attack? Yes, Fred, this is a really audacious attack which has been carried out by Ukraine’s intelligence services, known as the SBU. And it appears on Sunday they launched from multiple places inside Russia. The key here being inside Russia, attacks on Russian air bases, housing, strategic military aircraft, things that would go into the sky for surveillance and monitoring purposes and reconnaissance above the skies of Russia and over Ukraine to gather intelligence. What the Ukrainians are saying is that this has been a highly coordinated attack, with swarms of drones attacking these Russian air bases all at the same time. And those videos that have been coming out on social media show the devastation and damage that has been raw on these aircraft, many of them on the tarmac there. There’s one in particular. I don’t know if we were able to show it. You can see a first person view from the drone that shows these planes and drones hitting these planes on airfields or on any airfields inside Russia. It is a truly astonishing attack because what the Ukrainians have managed to do is damage some 40 aircraft, as you say, left billions of dollars of damage here for the Russians. And most surprisingly, these have taken place not on the border lands or the areas of Ukraine where the fighting is going on. One of these in particular, it is in Siberia. That’s four thousand kilometers away from Ukraine. And so this talks to a much broader, systematic, well-planned, coordinated attack by Ukrainians, intelligence that by Ukrainian intelligence, which has really stepped up now and delivered a crucial, crucial blow here to to to the Russians, Fred. And then how does this attack compare to, you know, previous attacks by Ukraine against Russia? Yeah. Well they are this is a big one. And the difference, though, is that this has happened from inside Russia. We have all seen the videos of drone attacks hitting Russian military and infrastructure targets for the past many months, and it’s been a coordinated campaign from the Ukrainians. But those have been launched, by and large, if not all of them from inside Ukraine. You know, I have been part of a, Russian, a Ukrainian, military intelligence operation to launch drones into Russia. But those drones took off from inside Ukraine. So this marks a major change. We’ve also seen the Ukrainians been able to push back the Russian navy in the Black Sea, which has also allowed them to, to, to protect their coastline, the Ukrainians, to protect their coastline in attacks coming from sea, into Ukraine. But this coming from inside Russia is a real game changer. And and it will send a message to the Kremlin. Fred, that our operations now are becoming more sophisticated. We have the equipment, we have the hardware, we have the military knowhow. And and crucially, here we have the intelligence that allows us to operate inside the Russian Federation. And all of this coming at a time. Fred, where the Russians and the Ukrainians are due to meet tomorrow in Turkey to try to hash out, or at least make some sort of progress towards bringing in to, into act a ceasefire to stop the fighting in Ukraine, which it was supposed to be and is hopefully going to lead to finally, the ending of this conflict, which has been going on now, Fred, since February 2022. All right. Sebastian Shukla, thank you so much. All right. Let’s bring in, Jill Dougherty right now, she’s a CNN contributor, former CNN bureau chief, for Moscow and adjunct professor at Georgetown University. great to see you. So, you just heard Sebastian. He used the word audacious to describe this attack. How would you describe, I guess, the risk, or reflection of improved Intel, from Ukraine? Yeah. I mean, when you look at the map of Russia and you see where they hit, it’s it’s quite astounding. I mean, I think everything that, that he said is correct, especially from launching it inside of Russia, that meant that they had to get these drones in there. And some details are coming out in the media that will probably have to be confirmed, but it’s it’s actually I could almost use the word creative in the way they did it. Very innovative. I think that it is a very big blow to Russia. If you have 40 planes and these are bombers and intelligence, you know, planes, etcetera, that is really huge. And I think also, you know, you have to again, put it in context, tomorrow both sides will be meeting in Istanbul. And this attack comes just days after Russia launched the biggest attack on Ukraine since the war began. I mean, they had, drones and ballistic missiles. So we have enormously, you know, increased fighting right now. I was talking to a friend of mine who is Russian talking to a relative in Moscow and saying that even the psychological effect of this is, is quite big because that that friend, in, in Moscow was saying the war has come to Moscow. You know, it’s no longer something that’s far away in Ukraine. It is now hitting, striking the homeland and thousands of of, kilometers and miles into the homeland. It’s really significant. and this is happening on, you know, the eve, loosely speaking, of what is supposed to be continued peace talks involving, Ukraine and, Russia this time in Turkey again. So might this impact that? Well, it probably will because of the, again, audacity of this attack. But it’s very hard to say where those talks are going to go because the Ukrainians have set out their position and, what they think, you know, ceasefire first and then a long term solution to the conflict. The Russians have yet to really be precise, but we pretty much know what they’re going to say. It’s not a ceasefire. First. It says, you know, root causes, as they call it. And what they want is all of Ukraine, essentially. I mean, they want to neuter Ukraine. it won’t be able to join NATO. It won’t be able to have a substantial military. They want territory. The Russians want territory that they they claim in kind of a legalistic way that they don’t even hold it. So this is I don’t know where they will go. Apparently it’s the same negotiating team from the Russians that they had at the last meeting, and that came up with essentially nothing. I think the question is, you know, what does President Trump do with all of this? Because you have on Capitol Hill not far from where I am. you have, senators who are talking about an, excuse me, an increased, sanctions and really very serious sanctions, and it’s a bipartisan push for new sanctions. But the question is, will President Trump do that? And that’s the huge question. Right. And if he does do that and, you know, really give, you know, some credence to what the senators who visited Kyiv last week, you know, are proposing with these sanctions, how will that further cripple, if at all? Russia. I think if they did what they’re talking about, which are called secondary sanctions, in other words, other countries that would buy energy, oil, gas, etc., from Russia would be sanctioned. Now, who are those countries? China and India primarily. That could really hurt Russia, right now. It’s hard to, you know, imagine this with the entire, economy of Russia is now militarized. It is everything for the fight. And you have approximately 40% of the economy now devoted to either producing weapons, tanks, etc., or to mobilizing people, paying for those people who are being mobilized 40%. And so they, you know, this is and it’s an economy that relies very heavily on the sale of energy. So this is very serious, and the economy is surviving, but it’s increasingly being affected by these sanctions. So the new ones could really hurt if they are carried out in coordination with the Europeans. And of course, if President Trump were to really, you know, do it. All right. Jill Dougherty, great to see you. Thank you so much.

Ukraine has carried out large-scale drone strikes against several airbases deep inside Russia, destroying multiple combat planes, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The operation, dubbed “Spiderweb,” comes on the eve of expected peace talks in Istanbul between Russia and Ukraine, and involved the most ambitious simultaneous strikes on Russian airbases carried out by Ukraine since the war began.

CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield talks with CNN field producer Sebastian Shukla and former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty. #CNN #News