Ukraine's June 1 operation to curb Russia's long-range strike capabilities

This is reported by the Defense Information Consortium, which brings together Ukrainian experts and research organizations.

Before the strike, the Russian arsenal of Tu-160, Tu-95MS, and Tu-22M3 aircraft numbered up to 90 combat-ready aircraft.

"The loss of even ten of them is a really serious blow, and Russia will not be able to replace them immediately. Therefore, it will be forced to reformat forces in its nuclear triad. In other words, this is a serious blow to Russia's ability to carry out the so-called strategic projection of power," the Defense Information Consortium concludes.

Russia no longer produces chassis for Tu-95 and Tu-22 bombers, and these chassis cannot be replaced: this is also reported by Russian military bloggers.

Ukraine's operation targeted aircraft that Russia uses to launch cruise missiles at Ukraine, and early radar warning and control (RRWC) systems. The latter are used by Russia to identify Ukrainian air defense systems and coordinate the targets of Russian fighters, and the Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 are regularly deployed to launch Kh-101/Kh-555 and Kh-59/69 cruise missiles at Ukraine. Therefore, Ukraine's operation will force the Russians to redistribute Russian air defense systems to cover a much wider range of territory and possibly deploy mobile air defense groups to respond more quickly to possible similar Ukrainian drone strikes in the future. Russia's ability to launch long-range drone and missile strikes against Ukraine will be limited, at least for a while.

What is known about the Spider's Web operation

On June 1, 2025, the Ukrainian Security Service conducted a major operation called Spider's Web aimed at destroying Russian bomber aviation. It is known that 40 aircraft were damaged.

According to the Security Service, the estimated value of Russia's strategic aviation affected by the special operation amounts to 7 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry stated that all terrorist attacks at military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions were repelled.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked SBU Head Vasyl Maliuk for the operation’s results. He noted that the “office” of the SBU operation in Russia was located right next to the FSB administration in one of the regions. A total of 117 drones were used in the operation.

The head of the Center for Countering Disinformation, Andrii Kovalenko, later reported that at least 13 Russian aircraft were destroyed and even more were damaged in the large-scale SBU operation.

On Monday, June 2, the second round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia took place in Istanbul, Turkey.