If what Ukraine’s acting president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, claimed is true, that the Operation Spiderweb drone attacks on Russian strategic airbases were a year-and-a-half in the making, then perhaps some of the major events that took place in that time period were in fact a buildup to those June 1 attacks. The last 18 months goes back to November-December of 2023, but already on December 5-6, 2022, Ukraine had launched a drone attack on the Engels strategic airbase in Russia’s Saratov Region, which the Biden Administration denied involvement in. Russian President Vladimir Putin in Feb. 2023 cited these attacks on Engels, however, as one reason for Russia’s suspending participation in the New START arms reduction treaty, because the “drones used for this purpose were equipped and updated with the assistance of NATO specialists.” Other notable recent events include the following:
• Jan. 31, 2024: Then-outgoing Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, in a press conference in Kiev, after a visit during which she had pow-wowed with Kiev’s military intelligence chief (and assassinations specialist) Kyrylo Budanov, bragged that the Biden Administration’s new $60 billion support package for Ukraine was going to boost “asymmetrical warfare” and bring some “nasty surprises” to Putin “on the battlefield.”
• May 22, 2024: Ukraine hit Russia’s Armavir early warning radar with Portuguese-sourced but British-supplied long-range drones.
