Remember that appalling scene in the Oval Office a while back? The one where VP Vance initiated a mugging/ambush of Ukrainian President Zelensky and Trump joined in? While some conservatives here, and of course Trump’s pal “Pootie” (Putin) reveled in it the overall reaction both at home and abroad was harsh. Trump’s being in thrall to Putin and pulling that stunt was even worse than Helsinki. Zelensky was the one who came out looking good, for keeping his cool. Well, it turns out he had good reason to stay calm and statesmanlike. We now know planning for Operation Spider Web was well along so Zelensky let Trumpty and Vance climb out on their ‘You have no cards’ limb. He and Ukraine just sawed that sucker off! Turns out Zelensky had plenty of cards. He just didn’t admit to it, much less show them!
I held off on writing about the stunning success of what Ukraine pulled off because I wanted to see what the reaction would be, especially from Trump and his crew. It’s been muted to say the least. I suspect there’s a lot of ‘how did we not learn about this beforehand?’ and plenty of ‘Oh sh*t – Zelensky made us look bad!’ going around the White House and even the State Dept. this week. For those who don’t know, who’ve grown weary of hearing about goings on with the war in Ukraine, and increasingly on Russian soil too Russia just lost a THIRD of it’s prized and bigly expensive bombers. The cost estimates range from $5-7 Billion dollars. That’s money Russia will have a hard time coming up with to replace them. Not to mention the manufacturing capacity.
On that latter point I’ll toss in a question that Putin has to be worried about which is is this: Since Ukraine pulled off such massive strikes and so deep into Russia, and spent 18 months planning them could his aircraft and other military manufacturing plants also wind up in ruins? Anyway lets talk about Ukraine’s Operation Spider Web. Multiple outlets from both here in the U.S. and abroad have written about the attack and having read a half-dozen are pretty consistent in what they say. I’ll include the story from the BBC which is a good read and has imagery too.
The BBC starts off by calling it “an attack of astonishing ingenuity – unprecedented, broad, and 18 months in the making.” They use the phrase ‘over 100 drones’ but other outlets are more specific, citing roughly 140 used in the attack. However like everyone else the BBC notes the attacks took place at five sites, thousands of miles east of the Ukraine Russia border and thousands of miles from each other. To me this is more than ‘astonishing ingenuity’ – it’s also an astonishing example of how grimly determined and more importantly how talented the military command in Ukraine has become in the years since Russia invaded their country. The linked article goes on to say:
The scale of the operation dubbed “Spider Web” became clear almost as soon as it began, with explosions reported across several time zones all over Russia – as far north as Murmansk above the Arctic Circle, and as far east as the Amur region, over 8,000km from Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed the attacks had occurred in five regions of Russia – Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur – but stated planes had been damaged only in Murmansk and Irkutsk, while in other locations the attacks had been repelled.
In photos released shortly after the attack, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), can be seen looking at a satellite map.
That first part stand out. We’ve seen Ukraine strike into Russia, upsetting some in NATO and sure as hell upsetting Trump prior to his getting back into the WH. Given Putin’s sabre ratting about nukes I supposed those who expressed concern at least had a leg to stand on but even Pootie isn’t that nuts as to deploy nuclear weapons. The pushback on Ukraine from western allies wasn’t all that strong so they’ve continued with artillery, drone and missile attacks into Russia as far as Moscow. More recently, just to prove they could if they wanted to they mounted a small incursion of ground troops and took over a sliver of Russia. It was a major embarrassment for Putin and forced a redeployment along the entire front to drive Ukraine back but I don’t think they ever intended to hold that ground. Like I said it was a “We can invade YOUR territory if we want. And might do so with enough forces to keep it” type of message.
What matters is that we’ve sort of gotten used to Ukraine carrying out strikes not just across the border but hundreds of miles into Russia. THIS however changes the entire war. Ukraine carried out major and successful attacks not hundreds but THOUSANDS of miles into Russia! It’s not hard to imagine oligarchs and generals Putin already worries about deciding if Ukraine can pull off something like this it’s time for a new leader who will hammer out some type of peace deal. Russian demands that led to the just concluded (for now) peace talks won’t help Putin with this group.
Russia has acknowledged the attacks but claimed far less damage. That they even had to admit to losing what they claim is only a half-dozen or so prized bombers is telling. I’m much more inclined to believe what Ukraine has reported and since western intelligence agencies (including our own) have satellite imagery and aren’t disputing Ukraine’s claims I’d say yes, Russia has taken a huge blow. What we don’t yet know is whether Russian intel gathering aircraft, the only aircraft that would be more devastating to lose than the bombers were damaged or destroyed.
Meanwhile it’s been a couple of days now and Trump, Vance and Rubio haven’t had all that much to say. I think the next round of communications between Trumpty and Pootie will be awfully interesting. Trump if you remember ordered cutting off Ukraine from U.S. intelligence. That makes it hard for him to whine now about Zelensky not warning him what was not just being planned but about to happen. Again I go back to that Oval Office ambush, after which Zelensky could have suggested to Trump (and Vance) ‘You should walks at least some of that back, and here’s why.’ Instead, given the f**k you Vance and Trump gave him live and in front of the world Zelensky made a decision to f**k them back.
That brings me back to that question of what else Ukraine might have in the works? You know damn well Putin and his military leaders are wondering. So is Trump. And Vance and Hegseth and Rubio. None of this is funny. We are after all talking about war. Still, one can’t help but be amused at the asshats I just mentioned and their staffs reaching out, begging Ukraine for even scraps of information about what they will do next.
For now accept a sobering reality which major news outlets are touching on. Yes, warfare has changed. But it’s more than Russia knowing no facility in its borders are safe from effective Ukrainian attack. If you don’t read the linked article let me suggest you should because in addition to describing how it was carried out it contains a disturbing detail. It was done with drones that as has been noted could be bought off the shelf in somewhere like the United Kingdom. Or other countries. And Ukraine has become quite capable of making it’s own. Other countries, countries we and others are (and should be) worried about can see that drones costing only a few hundred bucks or so can be modified and used to carry out devastating attacks on even powerful countries including this one. Non-state actors (terrorist organizations) will surely have taken note too.
For now though the news is good. Europe has renewed reason to tell Trump to go f**k himself when it comes to Ukraine. He can either get on board with helping Ukraine win by driving Russia out, sooner rather than later or get left out. Crudely put he can horn in and claim some credit he in no way deserves, or have his failure to put the United States back into “all-in” support of Ukraine become yet another black eye on both him and our country in the eyes of history.
***From Ursula*** Zoomers, if you’re able to contribute in any way, we could use help. I’ve been ill and recuperating from a brief hospitalization. Times are tough for political commentary to begin with, and that’s been the case since November 5. Half the country is in a major depression. But we need to keep on keeping on. This too shall pass and there will be a brighter, post-Trump day if we work for it. Please join us and help if you can. Thank you. Ursula
O.M.G. I had seen that headline but hadn’t started reading them yet. THANK YOU for telling us what it was all about. CELEBRATE the planning of Ukraine and the sheer guts it took to do this and successfully carry it off!
Of course Pootie had to say “only damaged”. Satellite pictures tell the truth. They SMASHED their targets! I am so, so, so looking forward to what they pull off next. Since they pulled off this, well, “the sky’s the limit”, although, ha, that’s perfect in other ways. And taking a slice of Russia because they could? BECAUSE THEY COULD. Priceless!
Pootie has continued to severely underestimate Zelenskyy and Ukraine. He has some hard thinking to do – although it might not make a difference! He’s been outclassed. Keep it up Ukraine!
I’ll have to write about this Air Alert app I’m on, courtesy of an organization supporting Ukraine in a big, big way. Soon!
It appears that all the drones used were made in Ukraine. Just another way to guarantee security, as well as maintaining control over quality. Ukraine has factories churning out military drones in large numbers: one factory owner was quoted as saying he could produce 4000 small drones per day, when running at full production capability. That should send some serious chills down military and political spines in Moscow.