CNN
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A massive drone attack on the Russian air in Ukraine is thousands of miles behind the frontline. It’s the latest in a long line of bold missions by the Ukrainian army against its huge neighbors.
More than a year and a half of the work involved drones smuggled into Russian territory and hidden in wooden mobile houses above trucks, according to sources from SBU, the domestic intelligence agency in Ukraine.
The strike caused an estimated $7 billion in damages, reaching 34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers on a major air base, sources said. The attack also showed that Ukraine still had the ability to put pressure on Russia, despite Moscow’s strengthening its own attack and attack operations.
Let’s take a look at some of the most important hits of the Ukrainian army during the war.
Analysts called Ukraine’s Sunday drone attack on the most important bomber base by Kiev since the start of the war.
More than 40 aircraft were known to have been attacked by the business, according to SBU security sources, including the TU-95 and TU-22M3 strategic bombers and one of Russia’s few A-50 surveillance aircraft.
The TU-22M3 is a Russian long-range missile strike platform capable of performing stand-off attacks, launching missiles from Russian airspace behind the frontline, leaving Ukraine’s anti-aircraft fire range.
Russia had 55 TU-22M3 jets and 57 TU-95s in its fleet at the beginning of the year, according to the “Military Balance 2025” of the International Institute of Strategic Studies think tank.
The TU-95 joined the Soviet Air Force in the 1950s, and Russia modified it to launch cruise missiles like the TU-22.
Military aviation expert Peter Leighton said the loss of a bomber that could carry the heaviest and most powerful cruise missiles would require Russia to rely more on drones for future attacks on Ukraine.
Outside of the Air Force War at the time, attacks on air bases would be a major distraction for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Karl Schuster, former executive director of the Joint Intelligence Report and Centre for the US Pacific Command, a military analyst in Hawaii.
“President Putin will direct more resources towards internal security after such domestic security failures,” Schuster said.
“Ukraine was able to deploy dozens of vessels with drones within the gaze of major Russian strategic bases and fire a massive air strike. Can you imagine explaining that to Putin?”
One of Ukraine’s first major victories was the sinking of the cruiser Mosqueba, a pride of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the early months of the war.
The Mosqueba was one of the most important warships of the Russian Navy, and its sinking represented a major blow to the Moscow army.
In April 2022, Ukrainian Operations Command claimed that South had begun to sink after Mosqueba was hit by a Ukrainian Neptune anti-fleet missile.
Meanwhile, Russia said a fire would occur on a guided missile cruiser, causing ammunition on the ship to explode, causing serious damage to the ship and forced the warship crew to evacuate.
Analysts said that the losses are comparable to the US Navy’s heart and public pride, as well as the US Navy’s rivals that of a battleship or aircraft carrier during World War II today.
The defeat of the Navy of the Black Sea Fleet in Moscow was followed.
In early 2024, six seed drones equipped with jet skis defeated the Russian guided missile ship, Ivanobet. Nighttime footage released by the Ukrainians showed at least two drones fired the drone as they ran towards the Ivanovet before they attacked the flanks of the ship, disabling it and causing a massive explosion.
Exclusive: Attacking Russian bridges using experimental drones using Ukraine
The 12-mile Karch Bridge, built following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, was a key supply line for Moscow’s war effort in Ukraine, and a personal project for Putin, embodying his purpose in linking the peninsula to Russia.
Russia built the bridge for about $3.7 billion
In July 2023, Ukrainian security services claimed they used experimental sea drones to blow up the bridge. The attack damaged the road lanes of the bridge and killed two civilians, Russian officials said.
Vasyl Maliuk, head of the SBU, told CNN that the Kerch attack at the time was a collaboration with the Ukrainian Navy.
The bridge is an important artery for supplying Crimea both daily needs and supplies for the military.
Over the past year, many famous Russian military figures have been killed domestically. Importantly, Ukraine never claimed to kill, but it is worth noting that many of the people killed played a prominent role in Moscow.
Last month, Russia’s vice-mayor and prominent war veteran Zauru Alexandrovich Ghatsiev was killed in an explosion in southern Russia. Russian authorities said they are investigating all options for killing “including terrorist attack organizations” involving Ukraine.
According to UN estimates, Gurtzev was involved in a Russian attack on the Ukrainian port city of Maripol.
According to the Heroes of Heroes programme, “we have introduced the development of missile-targeted technology, which has been able to increase accuracy and effectiveness many times.”
In April, Russian authorities accused “Ukrainian special services agents” of terrorism after being detained in connection with a car explosion that killed Russian General Yaroslav Moskarik, the main operational director of the Russian military’s general staff.
And in February, Amen Sarkishan, the founder of a pro-Russian militia group in eastern Ukraine, was described by Kiev authorities as the “criminal mastermind” – died after the bombing in central Moscow. The bombing took place in a luxury residential complex in the capital, Russian state media outlet TASS reported at the time.
Although Ukraine never claimed to kill, it is worth noting that a famous person on Russian territory was assassinated.
