Overview
- Operation Spider’s Web used 117 first-person-view drones covertly smuggled into Russia and launched simultaneously against four air bases across multiple time zones, destroying or damaging about 40 long-range bombers.
- Ukraine estimates the strike inflicted roughly $7 billion in damage and degraded 34% of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers, limiting Moscow’s ability to launch deep strikes.
- Russia responded with a massive night assault of 472 drones and ballistic missiles on Ukrainian targets, killing at least 12 servicemen and wounding dozens.
- Peace talks in Istanbul on June 2 yielded only prisoner swaps as Russia pressed Ukraine to cede Crimea and eastern regions, demands Kyiv rejected as unacceptable.
- President Zelenskyy vowed to press deep drone attacks until Russia halts its offensive, and senior Ukrainian officials have traveled to Washington to seek expanded US support and tougher sanctions.