Jimmy Rushton, a defense researcher, and Michael Weiss of New Lines magazine said footage supplied by Ukrainian security services appeared to show first-person-view drones diving onto the radar domes of two parked A-50s before detonating.
The clip also showed multiple Tu-22M3 bombers burning on the apron, they wrote on X.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said the overnight operation – codenamed “Spider’s Web” – struck bases in Russia’s Far North, Siberia and central regions simultaneously, damaging 41 aircraft worth more than $7 billion, including strategic Tu-95 and Tu-160 missile carriers.
If confirmed, the loss would leave Russia with only one operational A-50, Soviet-era radar plane that direct fighter intercepts and cruise-missile salvos. Kyiv says it has already destroyed three since the full-scale invasion began.
Escalation fears
Retired U.S. general Keith Kellogg, now Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, warned the strikes on nuclear-capable bombers pushed “risk levels […] way up” because they targeted part of Russia’s strategic triad.
“You don’t know what the other side is going to do,” he told Fox News.
Moscow has confirmed fires at two bases but has not acknowledged damage to the A-50 fleet.
The SBU said the drones were smuggled into Russia inside prefabricated wooden houses and launched when the roofs were remotely opened – a tactic requiring coordination across three time zones.
Growing reach
Sunday’s attack hit targets as far as 4,300 km (2,670 miles) from the front, underscoring Kyiv’s expanding ability to strike deep inside Russia despite limited Western-supplied weapons. Satellite images released on Tuesday by Capella Space showed scorched revetments and debris at Belaya air base near Irkutsk.
Ukrainian commanders say crippling Russia’s long-range bombers and surveillance assets is essential to reducing cruise-missile raids on cities and to forcing the Kremlin to disperse – and spend – scarce aircraft.
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Source: Polskie Radio 24, Reuters, The Guardian