How has the ‘Spider Web’ drone attack hurt Russia?
Ukrainecast
BBC
4.7 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 3 June 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Sunday, more than 100 Ukrainian drones struck air bases deep inside Russia. According to some estimates, the operation dubbed ‘Spider Web’ may have successfully damaged or destroyed up to a third of Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers. So what impact might this have on its aerial capability?
We‘re joined in the studio by Major General Jonathan Shaw, former Assistant Chief of the UK’s Defence Staff. And with Ukraine’s drone industry in the spotlight, we speak to Kseniia Kalmus, a drone manufacturer who co-founded a volunteer-led workshop in Kyiv.
Today’s episode is presented by Victoria Derbyshire and James Waterhouse. The producers were Laurie Kalus and Nik Sindle. The technical producer was Philip Bull. The series producer is Tim Walklate. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. Email Ukrainecast@bbc.co.uk with your questions and comments. You can also send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp, Signal or Telegram to +44 330 1239480
You can join the Ukrainecast discussion on Newscast’s Discord server here: tinyurl.com/ukrainecastdiscord
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:04.8 | Hello, it's 1,196 days since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:11.2 | James, I'm going to ask you a question that I know you already know the answer to, |
| 0:15.1 | because you work in Ukraine. |
| 0:17.6 | What does Zukwali mean? |
| 0:20.4 | I don't know it because I work in Ukraine. |
| 0:23.0 | My Ukrainian is relatively terrible. |
| 0:25.9 | However, I do know it because it's written on this bit of paper. |
| 0:28.6 | It means audacious. |
| 0:31.2 | Such a lovely word to say. |
| 0:33.6 | It's also the word that is being used by everyone everywhere at at the weekend, to describe this so-called spider's web operation by Ukraine inside Russia. |
| 0:46.0 | It's breathtaking, Victoria. Ukraine says it launched more than 100 drones, first-person-viewed drones, into Russia. They were smuggled into the top of lorry |
| 0:56.2 | containers in hidden compartments. They somehow made their way in. Unsuspecting drivers |
| 1:01.7 | parked them across Russia, even in the Far East, up in the Arctic Circle, where the lids |
| 1:07.2 | were opened. These drones flew out, and they destroyed strategic bombers. |
| 1:12.3 | These are used to, well, have the capability to launch nuclear weapons. |
| 1:15.4 | They're used to pummel Ukraine. They're used to spy on Ukraine. |
| 1:18.8 | And it's a massive blow to Russia, and another example of Ukraine's drone evolution. |
| 1:26.0 | Russia's Channel 1 dedicated exactly 39 seconds to it on their nightly news program on Sunday. |
| 1:33.9 | VATERNMIN abhorna up attack with premeningingian FV drones, |
| 1:38.2 | served in Kievskyv regime on a aerodrome in a region of our country. |
| 1:42.4 | And here they're describing terrorist drone attacks led by the Kiev regime at various airfields. |
... |
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