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UKRAINE WAR MASSIVE ATTACK ON RUSSIAN STRATEGIC AIRCRAAFT Preston Stewart: Bad Week For Russia's Air Force PLAY YOUTUBE VIDEO Original article: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne0V_C6Q2AQ Peter Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess
Bad Week For Russia's Air Force Preston Stewart 860K subscribers Jun 7, 2025 Another Russian aircraft was just destroyed We've got some new footage of Ukraine's Operation Spider Web which hit Russian strategic bombers earlier this week. Additionally it was confirmed by both sides earlier today that a Russian Su-35 was shot down in the Kursk region, the 8th downed by Ukraine since the war began. We look into last night's Russian attack on Kharkiv and some new statements from German Chancellor Merz. Twitter: / prestonstew_ TikTok: / prestonstew Instagram: / prestonstew_ Unclassified Podcast Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4YmaFZi... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... YouTube: / @theunclassifiedpod Contact: preston@warstories.co Transcript 0:00 so it's been a pretty rough week for the Russian Air Force I mean just earlier today we got footage confirming that a Russian Sue35 fighter was shot down in Kursk And this is on top of of course all of the losses during Operation Spiderweb which by the way we got more footage just like 30 minutes ago So let's go ahead and run through that Now this was released by the Ukrainian SBU again not long ago saying 'This footage shows the path of one of the FPV drones from takeoff from the roof of a modular building to hitting an aircraft.' So one feed uh un you know not cut from start to finish They say the recording captures the full path of one of the drones from the moment it took off to the destruction of a Russian TU22 M3 strategic bomber at the Ballayia airfield In particular the video shows the drone flying a considerable distance and landing without obstacles in the territory of the airport from which smoke previously hit planes is already rising And as it approaches here they say the the total cost of damages was 7 billion US As it approaches you can see some of the smoke in the fields Couple different It leads you to believe that 1:02 some of these drones may have been shot down or crashed on their way to the target Just there's also the possibility that as something detonates uh burning material flies into the air in a variety of different directions But nonetheless this one coming in uh after a fair amount of destruction has already happened to the airfields Now a couple key points as we let this play When we're talking about overall battle damage assessments from this attack it's still kind of challenging to gather Clearly some of these planes have been destroyed based off of the footage that we see here but also some of the overhead satellite imagery The general number that we're going with right now is somewhere between 12 and 15 that have been visually confirmed losses Uh visually confirmed losses of what are believed to be operational aircraft Based off of that number I think the best way to put this and thanks to Jacob Janowski here who runs Oric's blog for kind of running this down for me but he said roughly that represents roughly 20% 2:01 of Russia's strategic bomber fleet So that's a real number Roughly one in five of Russian bombers no longer operational no longer existing after this operation spiderweb was carried out a couple days ago Now Ukraine continues to to go with the 41 total aircraft that were targeted Uh I don't think as of this point we have visual confirmation of that many that have been effectively hit but here's one more video clip showing that at the very least that's another TU22 that caught the uh drone right on the top And again I want to run through a couple pictures here just to show how challenging some of the battle damage assessment is In some of these areas there's nothing left So in a lot of times near the front we'll have a vehicle destroyed I'll show some clips of those tanks or artillery pieces and you can say 'Hey that's clearly a tank It was a tank Now it's a burned out hole of a tank.' But when you look at the airfield here in Russia there are areas where it's just it's just dust at this 3:00 point I mean you know you can look at that and say it probably had an aircraft parked there at one point That also leads to uh when you look at the size of some of the fires coming out of these strikes there's more and more evidence that these were not not only were they operational aircraft uh but they were not just parked for storage they were loaded up with fuel and/or munitions getting ready to carry out strikes inside of Ukraine So not only did this operation spiderweb significantly reduce the capabilities and the the quantity of Russia's strategic bomber force but it also likely saved some lives in Ukraine as it hit some of these aircraft that were preparing to carry out strikes in the coming hours or days Now just earlier today so recording this on uh June 7th 2025 we got some footage confirming and this was confirmed by the Russian side as well that a Sue35 was shot down over Kursk So we've got the video of the aircraft burning on the ground No video at this point of the actual interception and then Russian channels did earlier confirm fighter bomber notably said the pilot safely uh 4:02 ejected He's been rescued but the loss of the aircraft was confirmed My understanding is this marks the eighth confirmed destruction of a Sue35 by Ukraine since the war began Now there's mixed reporting right now as to whether this was done by some sort of surfaceto-air fire or there's some rumors I don't think they're validated at this point that this uh this SU35 was shot down by a Ukrainian F-16 Again no verification at this point We have seen the Ukrainian F-16s become more and more active in the east in recent weeks We've got footage of GBU strikes or guided bomb unit strikes against Russian positions being carried out by Ukrainian F-16s By and large these are pretty new For the most part since the F-16s have been delivered to Ukraine we've mostly seen them utilized in some sort of combat air patrol generally flying in and around Kev and mostly pretty far west of the front helping to intercept missiles and drones during some of these 5:00 large Russian air attacks We really haven't seen a lot of aerial combat or offensive use of of this specific platform but that does look like it might be changing a little bit especially as we're seeing these GBU strikes uh or bomb strikes against Russian positions in the east Now speaking of those Russian strikes that the F-16s at times are being used to help intercept overnight Russia carried out another wave of attacks I don't have the numbers in terms of the quantity of munitions used at this point but they went after Harky a region in the east that it's relatively close to the front but it hasn't been under this type of bombardment in quite a while Now the the scale of the bombardment was not drastically different than what we've seen in other portions of Ukraine But last night they really zeroed in on Harkke According to United 24 media Ukrainian source here they say Russ Russia launched massive strikes with drones aerial bombs and missiles on Harkke and its suburbs today causing destructions and fires As of now they're reporting that one person was killed 17 6:01 injured and that includes two children They say a nine-story residential building was hit apartments on the upper floors caught fire rescuers pulled a woman out from underneath the rubble Now one major difference when you're looking at the strikes in Harkke is their the Russians ability to use these guided bombs which have pretty significant range 40 50 60 km plus at times but they've become much more accurate They're glide bombs is is a good way to describe them And over the course of the last couple years they've gone from being able to generally hit within a couple kilometers of a target they were just kind of lobbed generally in a direction to they're pretty pretty consistently hitting the building they want to hit one after the other after the other And with Hark being so close to the front lines in the east that's a risk for all of the residents there is it's not just rockets or it's not just missiles it's not just drones but it's also these glide bombs which can pack a pretty heavy punch Now according to Russia of course they say all of these strikes were successful Their Ministry 7:01 of Defense said last night the armed forces of the Russian Federation carried out group strikes by high precision long range weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles at the Ukrainian defense industry enterprises workshops manufacturing strike workshops that were manufacturing strike unmanned aerial vehicles UAVs maintenance weapons and hardware repairing centers as well as ammunition depots of the armed forces of Ukraine The goal of the strike was achieved all of the assigned targets were engaged and as is kind of the norm the videos that we're seeing do not appear to be any military targets Um these look civilian targets Now I've said countless times before Russia is not exclusively going after civilian targets They throughout the course of this war have successfully hit a lot of Ukrainian military facilities throughout the country Um but I would say it's it's pretty safe to say that Russia is a little more free and loose with their targeting and isn't nearly as concerned about uh collateral damage when they go after some of these facilities Maybe 8:01 there is a military location nearby Maybe there wasn't because there is an aspect of this that is just straight up terror as well Kind of trying to terrorize the population And when you're looking at areas like Harkke and Sunumi further north there's going to be a desire by Russia to kind of depopulate those areas with the hope of creating this sort of buffer zone in the east something that Putin talked about in recent weeks It's going to be harder and harder to do that if the Ukrainian population stays in those city centers So the depopulation of those locations close to the front is likely right in line with uh Russia's objective So now in discussing the attacks yesterday which were generally carried out all across Ukraine there were three first responders that were killed and we raised the idea that this may have been the result of a double tap type of operations specifically targeting first responders We got a little more information on that today that I wanted to share Coming from Eggberg Mickelson the envoy from Denmark to Ukraine in a video on scene Here we go Hi good morning I'm the ambassador of Denmark and uh this morning I'm in the peaceful 9:02 uh neighborhood of Julski which is not very far from the embassy Uh the reason why I'm here you can see behind me this is an office building that was attacked twice uh during the night U the second attack occurred when uh the rescue workers and firefighters were inside the building and three of them sadly lost their lives Uh I've come here to express my condolences uh and support for the rescue workers uh and to thank them for the uh the work that they're doing but I'm also here to condemn this heinous and despicable attack uh on a civilian target This is an office building So as you can see there from the actual scene the location of the one of the strikes yesterday where those first responders were killed and it does look more and more like that was the actual tactic utilized where one strike followed up I mean this isn't a hardened target right in some cases you need to you know carry out one two three strikes back to back because you're trying to get past air 10:01 defense assets or you're trying to uh penetrate a deep bunker something like that This is an office building I mean there does not look like a hardened target by any stretch of the imagination So there's not a lot of reasons where you would carry out one strike and then wait 20 30 minutes and then carry out the other unless the intent is to go after the first responders which is not a new tactic It's played out as long as places have been bombed around the world unfortunately Now once again it was not just Ukraine on the receiving end of attacks last night According to the Russian Ministry of Defense they say over the course of a few hours last night they intercepted and destroyed 36 Ukrainian aircraft fired into Kursk Biance Kuga Smolinsk and Moscow And we've got some videos of some of those drones flying through Russian airspace And we talked about this yesterday where uh a big component of this fight right now is Ukraine continuing to show their population their Western supporters and Russia that they are still in the fight 11:00 And the easiest way to do that the most effective way to do that is to continue to launch drone strikes into Russian territory And it's kind of something that German Chancellor MS who is here in the United States this week talked about saying this is you know we have to make sure that Ukraine has the strength to continue fighting Strength through peace is essentially what he said which is an interesting term that he went with because that's something we hear more and more from the Trump administration and the Hegsth Department of Defense But nonetheless I want to play a couple clips from German Chancellor MS here first talking about how he pushed President Trump to try to increase sanctions or add some pressure to Russia Here we go Axios is reporting that the president called this attack quote strong and quote badass Do you agree with him well the the country Ukraine is um the victim of a very hard aggression and this aggression is coming from Russia only and Russia has it in his own hands to stop this war immediately They 12:00 could stop it overnight So and that's the reason why I asked the president to go along with us to put more pressure on this government on Putin to uh come to an end with this terrible war Um I was a little bit more optimistic a couple of weeks ago when the first diplomatic initiatives were more or less successful In the meantime it's extremely complicated to bring the Russians to the table That's the reason why I asked the president to do more on Russia and to put pressure on Russia You know that there is a bill in the Senate drafted on more sanctions I just had a debate discussion with some colleagues from the Senate So I very much hope that we will go along and that we will do the same and the same has one goal Bring this terrible war to an end I mean to be fair that attack operation spiderweb it was strong and it was badass I mean it was unique in military history So that's kind of you know speculation He said she said hearsay if you will that President Trump actually said that But nonetheless 13:01 it kind of fits with what actually took 13:04 place And by all accounts it does seem 13:06 like MS was here in the US and a couple different statements he made while on camera saying he's really trying to push the United States to toughen our stance He mentioned the sanctions bill that's right now moving through Congress Doesn't seem like there's been a lot of progress on that It's not necessarily a priority from anything we can see But Mer continued here The anchor pushed back saying 'Doesn't that statement does that make peace harder to achieve?' Even this is where Mertz went with the peace through strength comment that I think was honestly directed right at President Trump and Secretary Hegsth Here we go But does it complicate talks peace talks if our president President Trump is calling these attacks these words strong well my personal view is very clear and very simple Only strength brings peace And if you are weak you invite aggression So Ukraine has to be strong and that's the reason why we are giving 14:01 support militarily financially politically for itself and this is something we would like to be continued as long as necessary But uh again our common goal is to bring this terrible war to an end So look based off of what we've seen from M so far it does seem like he's going to draw a pretty hard line when it comes to all things Russia Ukraine and is staunchly in the pro Ukraine camp which isn't all that big of a surprise But it is nice to see him uh kind of on tour like this pushing others to say like this is really serious We have to do something here let's come together and find a solution to bring this war to an end because Germany there's a couple different countries that fit this bill but Germany is going to be one of the leaders when it comes to some sort of European focused security solution or coalition of the willing and certainly an increase in the German or in the uh European military-industrial base So it's nice to see this from Merse We'll see if it continues Then shifting over to President Trump who was asked yesterday by a reporter and I'm going to read this out and then we'll play the clip because it's kind of hard to hear but a reporter 15:01 said 'Did the Ukraine drone strikes against the bombers did that change your view of the cards that Zalinsky has?' Again kind of going back to when Trump in the Oval Office said to the Zalinski you don't have the cards Kind of saying 'You need to negotiate You need to settle down on those demands.' Trump's response was quote they gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of him Let's give that a listen on Russia Ukraine Um did did the Ukraine drone strikes against the the bombers inside Russia the airfields did that change your view at all of what Zullinsky the cards he has well they gave they gave Putin a reason to go in and bomb the hell out of him last night That's the thing I didn't like about it When I saw it I said 'Here we go Now it's going to be a strike you know.' All right so turns out uh interviews on airplanes are not the most conducive to high quality audio Who' have thought uh but look I'm not going to get hung up in the semantics here I I don't think this was a a particularly productive statement to suggest that Putin needed an excuse or has now been given an excuse to do 16:01 anything at all let alone ramp up and continue the bombing in Ukraine But quite frankly this is this is pretty on brand pretty consistent from what we've heard from President Trump recently My gut still tells me that he's getting more and more frustrated that he's not been able to bring this war to a close and doesn't have the uh leverage and the pressure that maybe he thought that he and the United States did have So I feel like we're going to see him step further and further away from trying to play a direct role in negotiating an end to this conflict Now shifting back into Ukraine here there was an article that came out in the Kee post I wanted to highlight here real quick where it's talking about once again evidence that Russia is executing Ukrainian PS in this case before they're even PS They're wounded on the battlefield and it sounds like Russia's given the order in this particular instance to go over and execute those soldiers rather than take them prisoner because the logistics right it's too much We don't want to have to to deal with that Anyways they say Ukrainian intelligence has intercepted a call where a Russian commander was heard to order his troops 17:00 to execute captured Ukrainian soldiers They say at the beginning of the conversation the Russian officer warns his subordinates about the presence of Ukrainian forces stating that one Ukrainian soldier has already been captured but three others are nearby Quote 'They're here too You guys be more careful We've taken one Ukrainian soldier and three more are wandering around here.' The commander then made it clear that these soldiers are wounded quote 'There are three cocoals,' the Russian slur for Ukrainians crawling around There are 300s which is the term for wounded moving west Then he said quote 'In your situation don't take them prisoner Eliminate them.' The commander explicitly instructed them not to capture the wounded but to immediately kill them on the spot He continues quote 'We've already taken one effing prisoner but eliminate the others so you don't have to drag them into the shelter and expose yourselves.' So again this isn't anything new Tragically we've seen this has been a theme from the start of the war and we just discussed it in a recent video how Amnesty International and the Red Cross have put out the United 18:00 Nations have put out countless reports at this point saying yes Russia is executing PS and then once they are actually captured if they make it into a Russian prison There is overwhelming evidence that they are being tortured during their stay there and when bodies are coming home they've been mutilated and clear signs of torture So once again just even more evidence in this case intercepted radio communication that the order right at the front in this particular unit is to execute wounded soldiers rather than uh bring them back and capture them as prisoners But nonetheless that's all we got for now Thanks for watching and I'll see youall next time

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