Trudy Rubin: Ukraine's drone attack was more than a morale booster, it showed the new face of modern war

KYIV, Ukraine — As we sped along the highway from Odesa to Kyiv on Sunday, one of the Ukrainian passengers in the car suddenly let out a shout. The car swerved into a roadside gas station where people were glued to their cell phones.

The news had just broken online about Ukraine’s stunning drone assault on four Russian air bases — two of them thousands of miles inside Russia — which destroyed or damaged 40 strategic bombers used to carry cruise and ballistic missile attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure, possibly sidelining one-third of Russia’s fleet.

Snarky memes started pouring onto the messaging app Telegram, ridiculing Vladimir Putin and his hapless air defense system. “The Russian army is now the second best in Europe,” crowed one popular post. Another aimed its dart at President Donald Trump, proclaiming, “You said we had no cards, but we had the wild card.”

This daring act of sabotage, 18 months in the planning, amounts to far more than a desperately needed morale boost for Ukrainians following Trump’s effective defection to Putin’s side.

Operation Spiderweb not only illustrated the brilliance of Ukraine’s technological skills and the flaws of the Russian military, but it put the lie to Trump’s claim that Russia is the war’s inevitable winner (no wonder the president, as of Tuesday, has barely mentioned this stunning attack, and claimed he knew nothing beforehand).

The daring maneuver also demonstrates to the world how the use of drones and unmanned systems — with Ukraine now the global leader through its innovation and battlefield use — have become the new face of modern war.

A year ago, on my last visit to Ukraine, there was a shortage of artillery shells on the eastern front line after the GOP-led U.S. Congress cut military aid for six months. I watched determined soldiers fashion a few homemade shells using 3D printers and scrap metal filled with salvaged and melted explosive material pried from tank mines.

Such units turned, in desperation, to inexpensive first-person view (FPV) drones for surveillance and attack.

Starting with common, cheap Chinese Mavic drones, of the kind that Americans use for weddings and on vacation, frontline units ordered drones or parts on Amazon, or were gifted them by friends, family, and civilian volunteer organizations.

One year later, 80% of frontline “kills” of Russian soldiers and material come from drones carrying varying amounts of explosives and traveling increasingly long distances.

However, Ukrainians remain woefully short of air defenses that can repel cruise and ballistic missiles, especially given the failure of the U.S. and Europe to deliver the U.S. Patriot systems and interceptors that had been promised.

Ukraine begged former President Joe Biden and German leaders to no avail to provide long range missiles that could hit distant Russian aerodromes and eliminate strategic bombers at the source.

Exploiting this vulnerability, Putin has increased the number of strategic missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure, especially energy systems.

That is what makes Operation Spiderweb such a breathtaking combination of chutzpah and expertise.

Using 117 FPV drones, costing around $2,000 each, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims to have wiped out $7 billion worth of strategic aircraft — a stunning cost-to-benefit ratio. Moreover, Russia no longer has the technology to make such planes, so they can’t be replaced.

“Not everything can be revealed, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted.

Russian morale also took a hit, as military bloggers bemoaned the careless lack of security and underestimation of Ukrainian secret services.

Although all details are not yet confirmed, the SBU said the drones were smuggled into Russia, then hidden in the roofs of model vacation cabins, which were trucked on platforms to locations near the air bases by unwitting Russian drivers.

Then the roofs of the vacation homes retracted simultaneously by the four major air bases, releasing drones programmed to hit the fuel tanks of the planes, ensuring they would explode. The batteries of the drones were kept charged by putting solar panels on the roofs of the cabins, just above the hidden drones.

This sabotage attack can’t be considered a total game changer since the drones never could have traveled thousands of miles inside Russia without the brilliant truck scheme.

However, as I was told by Sergii Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian Center for Security and Cooperation, Operation Spiderweb does reflect a “revolution in warfare because drones can replace the function of every type of equipment we now use for war, on sea, air and land.” And, they can be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of the weapon and manpower they can destroy.

Moreover, Operation Spiderweb, conducted the day before the second round of Trump-driven “peace talks” between Russian and Ukrainian teams, has exposed the harsh truth about trying to woo Moscow toward peace by offering concession after concession up front.

Russia has not budged one inch from its demand for total capitulation and subservience from Kyiv, and has only increased its missile barrage on Ukrainian cities. Yet Trump refuses to carry out his threat to impose new sanctions if Putin rejects a ceasefire.

Ukraine demonstrated clearly on Sunday that it won’t play the Kremlin’s cynical game. It will continue to show up for the useless talks to appease Trump, but it will pressure Moscow though Trump does not.

The day after Spiderweb, the SBU did a follow-up, conducting a third explosive hit on Putin’s favorite Kerch Bridge, which links Crimea to the Russian mainland, hitting underwater supports.

These attacks landed severe psychological blows to Russia that Putin won’t be able to shield the public from. And as I saw firsthand, Operation Spiderweb will bolster the will of hard-pressed Ukrainians to continue their existential fight.

Maria Savianenko, one of the Ukrainians traveling with me on Sunday, gave voice to those feelings: “Drones have changed the war, changed everything. A country without ships, drove out the Russian fleet with drones, and without planes, we destroyed their planes. We can’t stop now because it is the only chance in our history to beat the Russians back.”

When she attended the memorial service Wednesday for a friend killed in direct combat on the front, she said that she would consider that every plane destroyed by Operation Spiderweb was “done in his name.”

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