How Ukraine’s drones are infiltrating Russia
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There's been a shift in Russia's war in Ukraine. Throughout the year, the Ukrainian military has been making ground, regaining some of its territory. So what's changed? Well, it's getting really good at making and using cheap drones. Today, Professor Michael Horowitz, Senior Fellow from the Council on Foreign Relations, on how Ukraine is striking deep inside Russia, including close to the Kremlin, and what it means for Vladimir Putin. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily.
Michael, there was a moment last year which marked a significant shift in the war in Ukraine. So why don't we start there? It was dubbed Operation Spiderweb. Just remind me what happened.
Operation Spiderweb was an ingenious strike by Ukraine deep inside of Russia.
Drone after drone strike planes at airbases across five Russian regions. The five minutes of footage released by Ukraine's security service unveils its audacious Operation Spiderweb.
Ukraine smuggled in container trucks across Russia's border, deep inside the country, hundreds of small one-way attack drones. And when they received a signal, they launched and targeted Russian strategic bombers, some of Russia's most important military assets, and did hundreds of millions of dollars of damage to Russian forces.
In southeastern Siberia, an onlooker films a drone taking off towards the tarmac at Belaya Air Base. It had been launched from a compartment hidden in the roof of a modular home that was being transported by truck. A brilliant operation was conducted on the enemy's territory against military targets only. Russia has had very tangible losses and justifiably so, as they deserved it.
the attack was shocking because it was the first time that ukraine demonstrated the ability to take the drone capabilities that it had used to target russian force of front lines to hit russian forces deep inside of russia hundreds of miles away from the fight and ukraine had been using
these cheap drones, Michael, before then. But this was really seen as a turning point, wasn't it? And since then, the Ukrainian military, it has hit many Russian targets with drones. Now, what have we been seeing since then?
The thing about Operation Spiderweb that was unique was really the intelligence. It was Ukraine's ability to smuggle these shorter-range one-way attack drones across Russia's border. What we're seeing now is something very different.
Ukraine has launched its largest attack on Moscow since the start of the war in 2022, with almost 200 drones targeting sites across the Russian capital and injuring 17 people.
Ukrainian drones have struck an oil refinery in Moscow for the second time in three days, sparking a huge explosion and causing major disruption across the capital.
Putin is not stopping this war. He insists on continuing it so that pressure must grow.
Ukraine in some ways has mimicked Russia's use of the Shahid-136, Iran's long-range one-way attack drone, and developed their own long-range one-way attack drone. So Ukraine has now developed the ability to launch strikes that can go up to a couple thousand kilometers into Russia, giving them the ability to target critical Russian infrastructure around the country.
Ukrainian drones have even hit energy and military sites in St. Petersburg, haven't they? It's incredible what they're actually managing to reach.
Absolutely. And it's not just the specific damage that they cause.
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