Satellite pictures of a Russian airbase taken shortly after Ukraine carried out a deep strike with drones show strategic bombers destroyed or badly damaged. Ukraine targeted at least four airbases across Russia using 117 unmanned aerial vehicles launched from containers close to the targets in Operation Spiderweb. Capella Space, a satellite company, supplied Reuters with images of one of those airfields, located in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, taken on 2 June, the day after the operation.
The synthetic aperture radar (SAR) pictures appear to show the debris of several aircraft located along the runway of the Belaya military airbase or parked in protective revetments nearby. John Ford, a research associate at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, said they showed what appeared to be the remnants of two destroyed Tu-22 Backfires – long-range, supersonic strategic bombers that have been used to launch missile strikes against Ukraine. The SAR image, as well as drone footage of the strikes posted on social media, also indicated that four strategic heavy Tu-95 bombers had been destroyed or severely damaged, he added.
Brady Africk, an open source intelligence analyst, agreed that the SAR imagery of Irkutsk airbase showed several Tu-95s and Tu-22s had been destroyed and damaged, although more imagery was needed to properly assess the impact. “But it is clear that the attack on this airbase was very successful,” he said. “The aircraft targeted in the attack were a mix of Tu-22 and Tu-95 bombers, both of which Russia has used to launch strikes against Ukraine.” Africk added that Belaya airbase is home to several flat decoy aircraft, which he said had apparently failed to mislead Ukrainian drones.
Ukraine on Tuesday detonated a massive underwater blast that “severely damaged” the base of pylons holding up the illegally built Kerch Bridge, which connects the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula of Ukraine to Russia. The signature project of Vladimir Putin was hit with the equivalent of more than a metric tonne of TNT, said Kyiv’s SBU security service, write Peter Beaumont and Artem Mazhulin.
The Kerch Bridge is heavily protected and Ukraine’s ability to place explosives directly on its underwater structure, coming after Operation Spiderweb, is the second grave embarrassment for Putin and Russian security services in three days. In October 2022 a truck exploded on the bridge, shutting it down, while in July 2023 the SBU said it had blown up part of the bridge using an experimental naval drone. Both times, Russia repaired the damaged sections. The bridge is regularly closed in security scares. Lt Gen Vasyl Maliuk, of the SBU, who supervised the latest operation, described it as “an absolutely legitimate target, especially considering that the enemy used it as a logistical artery to supply its troops … Crimea is Ukraine, and any manifestations of occupation will receive our tough response.”
A Russian attack killed at least four people and wounded 25 in the north-eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Tuesday, officials said. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, posted that the “completely deliberate” strike on civilians was “all you need to know about Russia’s ‘desire’ to end this war”. Russia also fired rocket artillery at Chystovodivka village in the Kharkiv region, killing two people and injuring three others, said the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov.
The attacks came a day after direct peace talks in Istanbul made no progress on ending the fighting – and as Dmitry Medvedev, Putin’s former prime minister and proxy president now on Russia’s security council, strongly suggested there was no sincere effort from the Kremlin’s side. “The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction [of Ukraine’s government],” he said.
Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, posted after meeting Trump envoy Keith Kellogg on Tuesday: “[Russia is] playing for time, manipulating the talks, trying to avoid US sanctions and not wanting a ceasefire.” The Ukrainian foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said that at their latest talks in Istanbul “the Russian side passed a set of old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace”. Russia meanwhile ignored a request to comment on Ukraine’s ceasefire proposals, he said. “We demand Russia’s reply. Each day of silence from them proves their wish to continue the war.”
Britain pledged on Wednesday to supply 100,000 drones to Ukraine by April 2026. The £350m package is part of a broader £4.5bn military support initiative that the UK defence secretary, John Healey, will make at a 50-nation Ukraine defence contact group meeting in Brussels co-hosted with Germany. For the first time since the group was created, the US defence secretary – currently Pete Hegseth – will not be there when all the other defence ministers meet.
