'Cold War flashback': Expert explains West’s shock at scale of SBU operation in Russia
Photo: SBU’s Operation Spiderweb shocked the US (facebook.com/SecurSerUkraine)
A large-scale attack on Russia’s strategic aviation has shocked the Western world. No intelligence agency in the world has ever carried out anything like this before, states Mykhailo Samus, analyst and director of the New Geopolitics Research Network, in a commentary for the RBC-Ukraine YouTube channel.
"They are shocked by the ambition and scope of Ukraine’s intelligence operations. No intelligence agency in the world has done anything like this before. I just want to remind everyone that throughout the entire Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, nothing of this scale ever happened," the expert emphasized.
According to him, there has certainly never been the destruction of strategic bombers or parts of the nuclear triad, or strategic nuclear forces.
"The destruction of such assets, and not just a one-off act of sabotage at a single airfield, but a systematic, well-prepared operation that comprehensively targets nearly the entire component of Russia’s strategic nuclear triad — that’s truly astonishing. In the context of the Cold War, this would have been pure science fiction. And this, let’s call it a Cold War flashback, explains the shock we’re seeing," he added.
At the same time, Samus noted that much of the American political establishment views this strike through the lens of Russia being the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union would have responded in a particular way.
"Of course, a strike on the nuclear triad implies nuclear war and so on," he concluded.
Operation Spiderweb
On June 1, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out a historic and unprecedented attack on Russian airfields. It was revealed that the operation, codenamed Spiderweb, had been in preparation for a year and a half.
Overall, the SBU used FPV drones to strike Belaya, Dyagilevo, Olenya, and Ivanovo Russian airbases.
The objective of the operation was to target strategic aviation aircraft used by the Russians to launch strikes against Ukraine.
It is known that at least 41 Russian strategic aircraft were hit, including Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and A-50 planes. The SBU stated that this accounts for a third of Russia’s entire strategic fleet.
It has already been calculated how much the Russian Federation lost in just one day of this Ukrainian special operation.
Putin’s complaints
It is worth noting that recently, US President Donald Trump held a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the call, they discussed, among other things, Ukraine’s attack on the airfields.
According to Trump, Putin told him he was "forced to respond" to Ukraine’s operation.
Today, on June 5, the Kremlin confirmed that Trump and Putin spoke about the SBU special operation. Putin’s side said they would like to hear words of condemnation from the US president.
