How Ukraine stunned Russia and changed the war – with Gavin Esler and Oz Katerji of This is Not a Drill

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A special crossover edition from our partner podcast, This is Not a Drill. Ukraine’s daring drone attack Operation Spiderweb has stunned Russia with its stealth, precision planning and the damage it unleashed on warplanes based deep within Russian territory. The Bunker regular Gavin Esler is joined from Kyiv by This Is Not A Drill co-host Oz Katerji, to discuss the impact of an operation planned meticulously over the past 18 months – and what it means both for the war and the nature of asymmetric conflict. • This episode of This Is Not A Drill is supported by Incogni, the service that keeps your private information safe, protects you from identity theft and keeps your data from being sold. There’s a special offer for This Is Not A Drill listeners – go to Incogni.com/notadrill to get an exclusive 60% off your annual plan. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/bunker for £100 sponsored credit. www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Managing Editor Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production. www.podmasters.co.uk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Advertising helps fund our podcasts, but we know some people would prefer the shows without adverts.
0:06.4	If that's you, why not support us on Patreon?
0:09.7	You'll get every episode without interruptions, and you'll be helping independent podcasting to thrive.
0:16.4	Follow the link in the show notes to find out more.
0:33.0	Hello and welcome to The Bunker, your daily dose of news without the nonsense.
0:38.8	Today we have a special crossover episode with This Is Not a Drill, the podcast which explores and analyzes conflicts and threats to global security every Thursday.
0:44.0	Ukraine's daring Operation Spider-Web stunned the international community, both due to the audacity
0:49.1	of the plot and the damage it unleashed upon the Russian forces.
0:53.4	This Is Not A Dr drill has been covering the situation
0:55.6	in Ukraine forensically and one of its team, Oz Katterjee, is in the heart of Kiev, analyzing
1:00.7	the conflict. He spoke with host and bunker regular Gavin Ezela from Ukraine to discuss the
1:06.6	impact of the operation and what it means for the future of this conflict. Take a listen and make
1:12.1	sure you subscribe to This Is Not a Drill wherever you get your podcasts. Sometimes in warfare
1:20.1	a daring even an improbable act carefully planned and executed can galvanise an entire nation and
1:26.6	help boost morale even as the brutal war grinds on.
1:30.3	British history lessons still include the 1943 dam-busters raid that destroyed German dams in
1:35.9	the Rur Valley using an extraordinary new technology, bombs that bounced across the surface of the
1:41.6	water to blow up the highly protected dams.
1:45.1	Now Ukraine's Operation Spider-Web, the stunning drone attack on Russian military aircraft
1:50.6	and airfields some thousands of miles inside Russian territory, was another daring, improbable
1:56.1	act using new technology that will go into military history, with commentators suggesting it may change how we think about asymmetric warfare.
2:05.1	I'm Gavin Esler, and this is Not a drill for a sense of the significance of Operation Spider-Web to Ukraine's war effort.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Podmasters, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Podmasters and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.