In using cheap drones to take out prized Russian bombers, Ukraine sends a defiant message

Ukraine's audacious drone attack on Russian airfields on Sunday, including some thousands of kilometres from the front line, was carefully co-ordinated and executed to send a clear message to Moscow, as well as to those who doubt Kyiv's ability to inflict significant damage more than three years into Russia's invasion. 

Ukraine may be pushing for a ceasefire, but it is far from ready to capitulate to Russia's demands.

The attack on the eve of peace talks in Istanbul, Turkey, was a reminder that "one can achieve more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word," said Ukrainian political pundit Taras Zahorodniy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the high-tech operation had been planned for more than a year and a half. It demonstrated that Kyiv can successfully launch cheap drones against some of Russia's most valuable military assets: strategic Tupolev bombers, which are used to launch guided cruise missiles over the border, and can be equipped with nuclear weapons.

It was a brazen military manoeuvre that not only rebuffed criticism from U.S. President Donald Trump — who proclaimed in that now-infamous Oval Office meeting that Zelenskyy did not "have the cards" to negotiate in the current conflict — but also showed the evolution of warfare, and the damage that can be inflicted by swarms of drones.

"A brilliant operation was carried out," said Zelenskyy in his evening statement, which went out on social media. "Our people worked in different Russian regions, in three time zones."

Ukraine says 117 drones were smuggled into Russia, and then concealed in the roofs of wooden sheds and later loaded onto the backs of trucks.

Then yesterday, one by one, they were remotely launched. 

Videos circulating on Russian social media showed the drones taking off, as gunfire rang out in an attempt to shoot them down.

In one video, a few men climbed on top of a truck trailer and tried to throw rocks at the quadcopters.

It's not immediately clear how devastating a hit it was on Russia's air force. A Ukrainian official initially said 41 planes were hit, and footage released by Kyiv showed Russian planes engulfed in flames. 

On Monday morning, Ukraine's national security and defence council said that 13 planes were destroyed in the attack, and others were damaged. 

In a statement, Russia's defence ministry confirmed that Ukraine had launched drone attacks against five airfields, including one in the Amur region, which is 5,600 km from the border with Ukraine. 

Russia said three of the attacks were "repelled" but that several aircraft on two bases caught fire. The airstrips were at the Olenya airbase, which is above the Arctic Circle, and the Belaya base in Siberia, which lies more than 4,000 km from Ukraine.