Roman Sheremeta 🇺🇸🇺🇦 Profile picture
Jun 2 9 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Seven facts about Operation “Spiderweb” — a Ukrainian strike that will go down in history as one of the most successful special operations ever conducted.

1. Ukrainian special forces spent 1.5 years preparing and planning the attack.

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2. Special cargo containers were custom-designed (see photos) to conceal drones. The drones were hidden in wooden boxes mounted beneath the container roofs. Image
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3. Unwitting russian drivers were hired to transport the trucks near russian air bases. The total distance to the targets was approximately 5,000 kilometers.
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4. The roofs of the cargo trucks were remotely opened, releasing a swarm of drones that flew directly toward russia’s long-range bombers (see photos). Image
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5. After launching, the trailers self-destructed to avoid detection or recovery (see photos). Image
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6. The strikes hit four russian airfields (see photos), damaging or destroying over 40 russian aircraft, including A-50 surveillance planes, Tu-95s, and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers. The attack reportedly disabled 34% of russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers. Image
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7. According to Ukraine’s Security Service, Operation Spiderweb inflicted an estimated $7 billion in damage on russia’s strategic aviation.
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This is one of the greatest russian defeats in modern history — not just a blow, but a surgical strike against the core of russia’s long-range strike capabilities.

The Ukrainian operation will be studied in military textbooks for decades to come.
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This is how you stop a war: by crippling your enemy’s ability to wage it.

Slava Ukraini.

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More from @rshereme

Jun 2
Why did Ukraine publicly disclose so much info about Operation “Spiderweb”?

That’s a very good question — and the answer reveals how modern warfare now goes far beyond the battlefield.

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First: russians would’ve figured it out anyway.

You don’t destroy 40+ aircraft across 4 airbases without someone noticing. Satellite imagery, media leaks, and local reports would’ve told the story eventually.

So why not own the narrative?
3/
Second: disclosure is the strategy.

Ukraine revealed how it pulled off the operation — smuggling drones in decoy trucks, driving them 5,000 km through russia, and remotely launching them under the enemy’s nose.

This wasn’t just a strike. It was a psychological ambush.
Read 7 tweets
Jun 1
This incredible video shows how Ukrainians carried out an unprecedented attack on russian bombers — an operation that will go down in history.

Ukrainian special forces managed to bring a truck full of drones across the russian border and drive it nearly 5,000 kilometers.

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2/ When the roof of the container was opened, a swarm of drones launched into the air.

As a result, over 40 russian aircraft have reportedly been damaged or destroyed, including A-50 surveillance planes, as well as Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 strategic bombers.
3/ Preliminary estimates suggest the strikes inflicted more than $2 billion in damage to the russian air force. Most importantly, russia no longer manufactures these types of aircraft.
Read 4 tweets
May 31
“This war could’ve been prevented 11 years ago.”

Former NATO Commander General Philip Breedlove said the war in Ukraine could have been avoided 11 years ago — if the West had taken decisive action after the annexation of Crimea.

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2/ “We proposed deploying forces, patrolling the skies—but everything was rejected as ‘escalatory measures.’ In the end, we did nothing—and Russia escalated anyway,” he explained.
3/ According to him, the West missed its window to deter Putin. And because of that, many more now pay the price.

Breedlove believes that neither the U.S. nor NATO was ready at the time to make the political decisions that could have stopped a full-scale war.
Read 6 tweets
May 30
Why is Putin stalling negotiations to stop the war?
 
The answer is simple - ending the war with Ukraine spells disaster for the Kremlin.
 
Putin has driven the country into a dead end: his war goals remain unachieved and the economy survives solely on militarization.
 
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2/ Hundreds of thousands of russians make their living off the front — from factories to trenches.
 
Without the defense sector, russia is already in a recession. Everything is collapsing — only the military-industrial complex is holding up.
3/ But the Kremlin’s biggest fear is the “heroes of the special military operation.” Tens of thousands of wounded, brutalized men, accustomed to easy money will return to impoverished regions with no jobs and no prospects.
Read 5 tweets
May 28
The faint-hearted should not read this. But please, do. And share it.

Three years ago, I translated the story of Christina Jolos — a Mariupol resident who fled while the city was surrounded by russian forces. Her words still haunt me.

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2/ “Yesterday, at our own risk, we fled Mariupol under gunfire. We spent the night in a frozen field in the gray zone. Thank God we’re alive — alive to scream for those still trapped.

Mariupol is not a city of heroes. It’s a city of fear, death, and horror.”
3/ “No humanitarian convoy. No evacuation.

We ran behind cars under fire. Taped ‘Children!’ signs to our vehicles. I put my son in the car as a rocket hit the yard next to us.

No one saved us. We saved ourselves — with God’s help.”
Read 15 tweets
May 27
A recent post from Trump.

Let me get this straight. Trump openly admits that because of him, Putin was allowed to do whatever he wants in Ukraine. And in return, Trump did… nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing.

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2/ He halted aid to Ukraine and suspended intelligence sharing at a critical moment — leading directly to Ukraine’s retreat from Kursk.
3/ Since Trump took office, russia has doubled — and recently tripled — its missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian territory.
Read 4 tweets

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