Spiderweb
SBU deep-strike on 1 June 2025 that destroyed Russian strategic bombers at their home bases.
Last refreshed: 9 June 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
How did Ukraine destroy Russian strategic bombers without sending a single soldier across the border?
Timeline for Spiderweb
Ukraine hits Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt
Russia-Ukraine War 2026- What was Operation Spiderweb and how did Ukraine pull it off?
- Operation Spiderweb (1 June 2025) was an SBU operation that destroyed Russian strategic bombers at Engels-2 and Diaghilevo by detonating pre-positioned charges placed inside aircraft hangars by recruited insiders, without any Ukrainian personnel crossing the border.Source: Security Service of Ukraine
- Which Russian bombers were destroyed in Operation Spiderweb?
- Tu-22M3 and Tu-95MS strategic bombers at Engels-2 and Diaghilevo airfields were destroyed or severely damaged.
- How far inside Russia is Engels airfield from Ukraine?
- Engels-2 airfield near Saratov is roughly 850km from the Ukrainian border, well beyond the range of most Ukrainian artillery and conventional missile systems at the time.
- Why is the Spiderweb anniversary significant in June 2026?
- The 1 June 2026 anniversary coincided with Ukraine's largest drone wave of the war, hitting the Baltic Fleet at Kronstadt, signalling continued deep-strike ambition in Spiderweb's lineage.Source: Lowdown briefing
Background
Operation Spiderweb was a Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) covert operation on 1 June 2025 that destroyed or damaged Russian strategic bombers at Engels-2 and Diaghilevo airfields using pre-positioned explosive devices. It was the largest single strike on Russian long-range aviation in the full-scale war.
The operation's first anniversary on 1 June 2026 served as the framing anchor for Ukraine's ongoing deep-strike campaign. The Kronstadt naval drone wave on 6 June 2026, hitting the Baltic Fleet's home base, was described in Ukrainian commentary as a Spiderweb-lineage operation, showing Ukraine's continued capacity to strike strategic Russian assets hundreds of kilometres from the front.
