How Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb unfolded on camera: Dramatic footage shows drones flying out of trucks after Russian drivers were ‘tricked by Kyiv’ to deliver deadly payload which wiped out Putin’s warplanes

In scenes straight out of a Cold War spy thriller, explosive footage revealed the moment Ukrainian drones flew out from trucks parked near Russian airbases in an audacious covert operation that left swathes of Putin’s prized warplanes in ruins.

Dubbed Operation Spiderweb, the mission – overseen in secret by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself – used hundreds of first-person view (FPV) attack drones smuggled into Russia in wooden containers disguised as cargo.

Driven by ‘unsuspecting’ Russian lorry drivers, the vehicles were parked near strategic airbases before their roofs opened remotely, unleashing swarms of drones that targeted and destroyed bombers on the ground.

The devastating strikes took place on Sunday, with dramatic videos posted by pro-Kremlin military bloggers showing flames engulfing aircraft at multiple locations, including one deep inside Siberia, some 2,600 miles from the Ukrainian front lines.

At least four more Russian strategic airbases were struck: Olenya in the Arctic region of Murmansk; Dyagilevo in western Russia; Ivanovo, northeast of Moscow; and Podmoskovye in Moscow.

Sources inside Ukraine’s SBU security service claimed the operation crippled 34 per cent of Russia’s long-range strategic bombers, including the nuclear-capable Tu-95s and Tu-22M3s, often used to launch cruise missiles into Ukraine.

These planes, however, are no longer manufactured, and so cannot be replaced. 

‘At the right moment, the roofs of the cabins were opened remotely and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,’ an intelligence source told the Kyiv Independent.

In a statement, the SBU said at least 41 long-range bombers had been damaged or destroyed.

The deadly payloads were reportedly hidden in what drivers thought were frame houses or modular cabins – and delivered to Russian airfields in Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ryazan, and Ivanovo.

The wooden containers were packed with 117 FPV kamikaze drones – which allow pilots to control them remotely through a live feed. 

Then came mobile wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden compartments into which the small flying weapons were stashed.

They were loaded on to civilian trucks heading into enemy territory, their hired local drivers seemingly unaware of what they were carrying.

Finally, yesterday afternoon, with all the lorries within range of five airfields stretching from northern Russia down to Siberia –  they struck.

Several drivers, now being questioned by Russian investigators, claim they had no idea they were transporting lethal Ukrainian drones.

According to Baza Telegram channel, one of the drivers, 55-year-old Chelyabinsk resident Alexander Z, said he had received an order from an entrepreneur from the Murmansk region, who said that he needed to organise the delivery of four frame houses from Chelyabinsk to the Kolsky district of the Murmansk region.

The men agreed on a price, after which Alexander loaded the ‘goods’ into the car and took to the road. 

According to the driver, while driving, an unknown person contacted him on the phone and gave him instructions on where and when Alexander needed to stop. 

He then pulled in to Rosneft petrol station near a Murmansk airfield when the truck’s roof flew open and dozens of drones blasted out.

With the help of front-positioned cameras, the missile-loaded drones headed straight for Russia’s highly expensive bomber planes. 

A similar event occurred in Irkutsk, where 61-year-old Andrey M. was tasked to deliver frame houses to the region.

However, at the moment when the driver parked at the Teremok cafe in Usolye-Sibirskoye, drones began to fly out of the car.

Similar stories were also told by the drivers of trucks from which drones were launched in the Ryazan and Ivanovo regions. 

Sergey, 46, told investigators that he was transporting a modular house from Chelyabinsk. But when he entered Ryazan, the roof of his Scania was blown off while driving, and drones began blasting out.

The fourth truck, from which drones were launched yesterday at the Ivanovo airfield, was also loaded in Chelyabinsk.

Amid the drone blasts, one Russian man recalled to Mash Telegram channel throwing stones into the backs of the trucks in an attempt to stop the drones from taking off.

The trucks are all linked to a mysterious man named Artem, 37, believed to be Ukrainian, and had reportedly been loaded in Chelyabinsk.

All drivers reported receiving cryptic phone calls with instructions on exactly where to stop just hours before the drone launches.

Footage showed decimated enemy planes in flames on the runway and last night Ukrainian security sources claimed to have taken out 41 aircraft worth some £1.5billion. 

According to Baza, Russian officials have launched a terrorism investigation and are now hunting Artem, who is believed to have fled.

The Russian tyrant has stayed out of sight since the attacks on multiple air bases in Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb, but an insider has warned: ‘He will hit back at Ukraine, but also avenge his underlings who allowed this humiliation to happen’.

Meanwhile, the SBU says all Ukrainian personnel involved in preparing and guiding the mission are already safely back in Ukraine, dismissing Moscow’s response as a ‘another staged performance for the domestic audience’.

In a statement, President Zelensky hailed the ‘perfectly prepared’ operation, which he claimed was run out of a building located near an office of the Federal Security Service, Russia’s principle security service.

The sleeping FSB security service – headed by close ally Alexander Bortnikov, 73 – now faces blame over Ukraine using a warehouse next door to an intelligence HQ in Chelyabinsk to prepare the drone strikes on his airbases. 

Operation Spiderweb was 18 months in the making and under the control of Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the Ukrainian security service, the SBU.

Zelensky also noted its symbolic timing as the operation came exactly 29 years after Ukraine handed over its own strategic bombers to Russia as part of the ill-fated Budapest Memorandum, under which Moscow promised never to attack its neighbour.

‘We can say with confidence that this is an absolutely unique operation,’ he said in statement on social media, revealing that 117 drones were used to target bombers ‘used to fire at our cities.’ 

‘What’s most interesting, is that the ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions,’ he added.

‘In total, 117 drones were used in the operation, with a corresponding number of drone operators involved, and 34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit. We will continue this work.’

He assessed that the attack on Putin’s irreplaceable bombers ‘will undoubtedly be in [the] history books’.

Military blogger Roman Alekhin said the incident will go down as ‘Russia’s Pearl Harbour’ – a reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War.

Pro-Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomb, believed to be run by Capt. Ilya Tumanov of the Russian Army, acknowledged that Sunday would ‘later be called a black day for Russian long-range aviation,’ adding: ‘And the day is not over yet.’ 

Former RAF pilot and military analyst Mikey Kay told the BBC: ‘The Russians would never have expected something like this. I mean, it’s genius, if you think about just the devastating effect that it’s had on strategic assets of Putin.’

Philip O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, said the raid was ‘the most remarkable and successful operation of the war.’

He told The Times: ‘This is a big blow to Russian strategic air power, which is hard to overestimate. We do not know what the Russian reaction will be, however we can assume it will be violent.’

A delegation from Kyiv is due to meet counterparts from Moscow for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul today but it was not clear last night if it would still go ahead.

Ukraine has said that its proposals will include a full 30-day ceasefire followed by the return of all prisoners held by each side.

Russia has so far refused to agree to a 30-day pause in fighting and overnight on Saturday launched its largest strike of the war so far with 472 drones and seven missiles. 

Just hours before the drone strikes a wave of bomb attacks targeted Russian bridges and railway lines in regions bordering Ukraine.

Russia declared them ‘acts of terrorism’ with seven killed and dozens injured when a passenger train travelling to Moscow was derailed by a collapsed bridge in Bryansk on Saturday night.

Hours later, in neighbouring Kursk where Ukraine launched its major cross-border incursion last August, a freight train was derailed by another fallen bridge.

A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers yesterday and wounded more than 60 others, the Ukrainian army said.