Ukraine carried out another audacious drone attack behind Russian lines, destroying a military supply train carrying heavy armour to the frontlines. Furious pro-Kremlin bloggers have dubbed the recent setback as Operation Spiderweb 2.0, following Ukraine’s attack on Russian airbases last week.
Reports suggest Ukraine’s army had managed to conceal drones in a grain carriage attached to the train. At a given moment, the hatches on the grain containers flew open and the drones swarmed out. They took out the locomotive which cane to a halt, before attacking the rest of the carriages.
Ukraine”s Southern Forces Command says the attack caused substantial damage and equipment loss.
According to their report, the drones managed to destroy 13 tanks, seven artillery systems and 103 armoured vehicles.
At the same time, the drones set on fire carriages carrying an estimated 158,000–172,000 gallons of fuel.
The attack provoked a furious response from Russia’s nationalist community on line.
One fumed: “What genius came up with the idea of combining a train of equipment with grain trucks is a mystery.
“How the SBU (Ukraine’s Security Service) managed to hide drones there is also unknown, but the result was this.
“The first blow was delivered to the locomotive, after which the train began to lose speed and was stopped.
“The enemy destroyed most of the equipment without hindrances. Operation Spiderweb 2.0”
Last Sunday, Kyiv scored a major success after launching daring attacks on airbases deep inside Russia, destroying a number of strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
It comes as Russia claims its forces are advancing to the edge of the east-central Ukrainian region of Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in the three-year war.
A Ukrainian military spokesperson, Dmytro Zaporozhets, said that Russian forces were trying to “build a bridgehead for an attack” on Kostyantynivka, an important logistical hub for Kyiv’s army.