Ukraine Strikes Russia's Bombers - The Operation, Damage & Lessons of Ukraine's "Bear" Hunt

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For most of the war in Ukraine, Russia's nearly irreplaceable inventory of strategic bombers have been mostly beyond Ukraine's reach.

On 1 June, that changed. Small drones, launched from trucks, swarmed multiple Russian airbases and destroyed what appears to be a double digit percentage of Russia's active bomber inventory.

It was a dramatic operation - one that drew immediate attention for its impact, cost effectiveness, and what it signals about the future of the drone threat.

So today, let's talk about Операція Павутина, Operation "Spider's web"

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Reading and Sourcing (incomplete due to late upload, to be expanded):
As normal, for consistency between videos visually confirmed loss data baseline is per Oryx and equipment inventory baseline is per MB2024

Russia claiming aircraft will be repaired
https://tass.com/politics/1968937
https://www.reuters.com/business/aero...

Russian reporting on Tu-160 production
https://tass.com/russia/797164 - restart order in 2015
https://tass.com/russia/1578231 - second 160M sent for flight tests (2023)

USAF bomber ready rates
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air...

Ukrainian claimed Tu-22 shootdown (2024)
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/tu-22...

New START
https://media.nti.org/documents/new_s...

"Ukraine’s Attack on Russian Airfields Could Accelerate the PAK DA Stealth Bomber Program"
https://militarywatchmagazine.com/art...

Relevant / included reporting
https://united24media.com/latest-news....

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/54002#:....

https://x.com/RALee85/status/19293958...

https://www.kp.ru/online/news/5908344/

https://www.twz.com/air/latest-on-rus...

https://kyivindependent.com/enemy-bom...

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs...

https://x.com/TankerTrackers/status/1...

https://kyivindependent.com/russias-s....

https://www.theguardian.com/world/202...

Containerised loitering munitions
https://www.twz.com/news-features/shi...

Fuel truck concealment
https://defence-blog.com/russian-mili...

Russia suspending New START
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/...

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/0...


Caveats & Comments:

All normal caveats and comments apply. In particular – I would like to note as always that this material has been created for entertainment purposes and is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive examination of the topic in question and should not be relied upon to inform financial or other similar decisions.

Any content relating to the conduct, views, activities or any aspect of any person or character in this video is included for entertainment purposes and does not represent an assertion of fact on those matters or any matters in relation to that person or character.

Care has been taken in compiling data, quotes, and other inputs from various sources but errors can occur. Quotes and included data should be considered illustrative, not definitive and their veracity should not be relied on.

Timestamps:
00:00:00 — Opening Words
00:01:15 — What Am I Talking About?
00:03:24 — the Bomber Threat
00:15:49 — Losses by Type
00:32:49 — Cope
00:40:06 — Immediate Impact
00:46:03 — Secondary Impacts
00:50:57 — Recovering From This?
00:58:45 — What Next?
01:01:35 — What Next for Ukraine?
01:03:15 — Channel Update