Asymmetric strike

Ukraine's attack on Russian air assets holds lessons

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In a daring and unexpected offensive, Ukrainian forces carried out several simultaneous attacks deep within the territory of the Russian Federation, targeting the latter's long-range or strategic bombing fleet.

The Russian authorities confirmed that these attacks had taken place, but did not reveal how many bombers were damaged.

Russia's fleet of strategic bombers is irreplaceable, given that they date from the 1950s and the assembly lines have long since shut down.

The Ukrainian security service claimed that a third of the fleet was hit; President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that damage worth $7 billion was done.

But what has seized the world's attention and will keep military planners and strategists occupied for the next months and years is the mechanism by which Kyiv dealt this damage: Cheap first-person view, or radio-controlled drones.

These were disguised as a regular shipment of building materials and loaded on to commercial container trucks, which were then sent to locations close to air bases across Russia.