Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web has captured global attention for an estimated $7 billion in damages to Russian aircraft made with 117 affordable drones.
Since 2022, the world has watched Russia’s war on Ukraine, observing the severe losses on both sides. A recent report from the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington suggested the overall casualty figure for both sides is near 1.4 million, and predicted that Russia alone may suffer 1 million casualties before autumn of 2025. One author of the study, Seth G. Jones, attributed this loss to the tedious progress of the invader: “Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine is on pace to be among the slowest offensive campaigns in modern warfare”. As the Ukrainian people have persisted under the length of the conflict, the world has also carefully watched as new techniques of fighting developed, considering what they may mean on a broader scale.
On June 1, 2024 Ukraine carried out their “Spider Web” operation, an attack that has captured global attention for its remote functioning and profound impact. Operation Spider Web damaged critical Russian aircraft deep inside the country, hitting 41 strategic bombers and destroying at least 13, according to Ukrainian reports. Kyiv officials also reported that Russia’s damages from the attack amount to around $7 billion, which is remarkable considering that the strike was done through 117 simple quadcopter drones, each costing under $1,000. The $7 billion claim was disputed by the Russian Foreign Ministry - which did admit that some planes were hit - but an independent assessment of the attack has not been completed yet. On top of the drone attack, Ukraine also used their cyber abilities to hack into Russia’s strategic warplane maker and steal strategic information.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine supervised the project and revealed the plan took more than 18 months to prepare in a post on X. The drones were hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds that were delivered to the perimeters of the air bases. Panels in the shed roofs were remotely activated, allowing for the drones to be released at the time of the attack. Five military airfields across Russia (Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur) were attacked, but the drones were repelled in three regions except for Murmansk and Irkutsk. Still, the nature of the attack meant that Ukraine was able to disrupt Russian operations 2,670 miles away from the front lines.
Later, on June 4th, 2025 Zelensky said that half of the damaged planes were irreparable, which may be true: The Tu-95, Tu-22, and Tu-160 warplanes are missile-carrying bombers believed to have been hit in the operation. The Tu-22 has previously been used to launch missiles against Ukraine. None of these planes are still in production, so they are impossible to replace and difficult to fix.
Operation Spider Web has inspired awe and alarm, even among Ukraine’s allies in the West. Senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Douglas Barrie, said that the attack meant that for the West, "the spectrum of threats they’re going to have to take into consideration only gets broader”. Caitlin Lee, a drone warfare expert at RAND, a policy research institute, in Washington D.C., called technology at military bases “big, juicy targets for both state and non-state actors,” adding that “[t]he time is now” to implement anti-drone defenses.
Aaditya Devarakonda, the CEO of Dedrone (a counter-drone technology developer) by Axon, similarly said “[t]he real challenge isn't just detecting these threats; it's accepting that we're now operating in an environment where attackers can spend hundreds to destroy billions of dollars of equipment. Our security and response systems need to match that speed and asymmetry.”
Even outside of the drone attacks, Ukraine’s cyber capabilities continue to affect Russia’s aerospace campaigns. In a complementary move to the operation Spider Web, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense alleges it hacked Tupolev, a Russian aerospace and defense company that also develops their strategic bombers. The hackers claim to have taken 4.4 GB of classified data, including “internal communications among company leadership, personal data of Tupolev staff, home addresses, resumes of engineers and designers, procurement records, and protocols from closed-door meetings.” The hackers even changed the public-facing appearance of Tupolev’s official website with a symbolic image of an owl clutching a warplane in its talons.
‘Hacktivism’ and data breaches have been a large part of the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Operation Spider Web and the Tupolev hack demonstrate how modern warfare is being carried out increasingly online, even remotely. Still, these methods may not result in lower casualties, as Russia retaliated to Ukraine’s cyber campaign by allegedly launching over 400 drones and 40 missiles on the capital city Kyiv overnight - wounding 20 people and ending the lives of four. As the war endures, the globe will continue to watch for other cyber warfare techniques to emulate and defend against.