First Bombers, Then Fighters. In the 3rd Major Op This Month, Ukraine Strikes Russian Helicopters & Drones
The third June strike by the Ukrainian state security service blasts a base in Crimea
First, they came for Russia’s bombers. Next, they went after Russia’s fighter-bombers. Now, the operatives from Ukraine’s state security service, the SBU, have targeted Russian helicopters and drones at their base in occupied Crimea. All in the span of three weeks.
The SBU’s deep-strike campaign, targeting Russia’s own strike assets, is widening.
On Friday night, the SBU’s long-range attack drones “dealt another painful blow to the occupiers,” according to the service. Drones struck the Russian airfield at Kirovske, 130 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine.
“Fire damage was inflicted on the locations of the aviation component, air-defense systems, ammunition storage depots, as well as reconnaissance and strike UAVs of the enemy,” the SBU reported.
The SBU claimed it destroyed Mil Mi-8 and Mil Mi-26 transport helicopters and a Mil Mi-28 attack helicopter as well as a Pantsir air-defense vehicle. A reported secondary explosion may point to Russian ammunition stocks—or parked drones—cooking off.
“The SBU is systematically working to reduce the Russian Federation's capabilities to deliver air and bomb strikes on the territory of Ukraine,” the service explained. “The occupiers should realize that their expensive military equipment and ammunition are not protected anywhere: neither on the line of combat contact, nor in temporarily occupied territories, nor in the deep rear of the enemy.”
The SBU isn’t kidding
On June 1, the service smuggled long-haul trucks full of explosive first-person-view drones close to five Russian air bases, the farthest around 3,700 miles from Ukraine.
Around 100 of the tiny FPVs, each weighing just a few pounds, swarmed the bases. Relaying signals back to their operators via Russia’s own cellular phone network, the drones homed in on Russian air force strategic bombers and other warplanes parked on the bases’ tarmacs.
When the smoke cleared, satellite imagery confirmed no fewer than 13 planes had been destroyed. The losses included 11 irreplaceable Tupolev Tu-22M and Tu-95 strategic bombers: around 14% of Russia’s active bombers.
Three weeks later on Friday, the SBU and Ukraine’s special operations command, the SSO, struck again—and knocked out as many as four Russian air force Sukhoi Su-34 fighter-bombers at Marinovka air base in Volgorod Oblast, 180 miles from the front line in Ukraine. The Russians have lost
The Su-34s are Russia’s primary platforms for dropping KAB winged glide-bombs on Ukrainian positions. The 1,100- and 2,200-pound KABs range as far as 40 miles. They can be jammed, but the sheer number of KABs raining down on the Ukrainians—thousands per month—makes them among the most damaging munitions in the Russian arsenal.
Alongside Tupolev Tu-160s, the Tu-22Ms and Tu-95s are Russia’s main platforms for long-range cruise missile strikes on Ukrainian cities.
By eliminating a significant portion of Russia’s missile-carriers, the June 1 Operation Spider Web could have “significant effect that should dramatically reduce Russia’s ability to launch missiles against Ukrainian cities and kill civilians,” Hodges noted.
Attack helicopters are a lower-priority target, as they contribute nothing to Russia’s campaign of deep strikes—and are increasingly vulnerable along the front line, where short-range surface-to-air missiles and interceptor drones are densest.
But the reference to Russian UAVs may hint at the true targets of the Friday raid on Kirovske. Russian forces in Crimea have begun flinging Dan-Ms unmanned aerial vehicles—target drones modified to carry warheads—at targets in southern Ukraine.
The Dan-Ms are essentially miniature Russian clones of the American Tomahawk cruise missile, which the unarmed Dan-Ms mimic during air-defense training exercises.
It’s not clear the Dan-Ms were the intended target of Friday’s raid. There may have been other Russian strike drones at Kirovske.
Read more:
Russia's Dan-M Training Drone Mimics the U.S. Tomahawk Missile. Now It's Attacking Ukraine.
Russia fires Kh-101 cruise missiles at Ukraine practically as fast as it builds them. Reaching deep into their arsenal for alternatives to the multi-million-dollar missiles, the Russians found a handy alternative to the Kh-101: an target drone called the Dan-M.