Moscow Dodged 'Pearl Harbor-Style' Ukraine Attack. Saviour? Hungover Russians

An unexpected surge of hungover Russian drivers forced Ukraine to postpone its daring “Pearl Harbour”-style attack on Moscow's bomber fleet, a new report has revealed. 

Kyiv secretly flew drones into Russia earlier this year, planning the unprecedented strike to coincide with Russian Victory Day on May 9, the Wall Street Journal reported. The assault, part of the classified Operation Spiderweb, was designed to damage Moscow's airpower and embarrass the Kremlin.

Operation Spiderweb was the SBU's boldest mission to date, demanding 18 months of careful planning, cunning deception, advanced technology, steady nerves, and a touch of luck.

However, holidays, including Victory Day, Russian Labour Day and Orthodox Easter resulted in a shortage of active drivers to transport the drones to their launch points. For the operation to succeed, Ukraine relied on unwitting Russian truckers, who believed they were moving ordinary wooden cabins. The small pool of drivers made it too risky to carry out the mission, SBU officials told the American daily. The perfect set of drivers was only found at the end of May 2025.

The SBU faced further hurdles during the operation. On one occasion, a driver noticed the roof of a cabin had fallen off, revealing the drones inside. The driver immediately contacted his employer, Artem Timofeev, a 37-year-old Ukrainian, based in Russia. Tymofeyev, who was the main on-the-ground coordinator, assembled the drones with his wife. He was coached by the SBU to feign ignorance.

When the truck driver called, Timofeev pretended to be unaware of the cargo. Guided by the SBU, he offered a barely plausible explanation. He said the wooden cabins were hunting lodges, and the drones inside were used for tracking animals over large areas, as per reports.

Other complications included a mechanical failure in one of the trucks, which the SBU and Timofeev resolved by transferring the cargo to another vehicle, and the temporary loss of communication with two drone-laden cabins. Attempts to instruct the driver remotely failed, prompting fears of a compromise. But then various reports revealed that the cabins had caught fire, causing the drones to detonate and killing the driver.

Despite the setbacks, Operation Spiderweb succeeded. On the morning of June 1, over 100 drones were deployed from cabins on four trucks, targeting four Russian airfields. For the Kyiv-based drone pilots, the exposed warplanes were easy targets. Within an hour, dozens of Russian warplanes were either destroyed or damaged.

The operation boosted the SBU's global reputation, countering its long-standing image as a corrupt KGB successor riddled with traitors.