International Press Review dated 2-13 June 2025
- Anton Kuchuhidze
- Jun 12
- 6 min read
In recent weeks, Western media, leading experts, and analysts have focused on scrutinizing the Ukrainian attacks on four military airfields in russia.
Most experts agree that despite russia's significant size and resource advantage, the Ukrainian Armed Forces demonstrate an impressive level of professionalism and innovation, making them one of the most modern armies in Europe. Their key advantages include the effective use of military drones, the introduction of next-generation command centers and a deep understanding of the principles of modern warfare.
In an article by The Washington Post, the author emphasizes that Ukraine is changing the rules of warfare. The article highlights a large-scale attack by Ukrainian forces on five russian air bases, two of which are located thousands of kilometers from the front line. This operation, called "Spider's Web," was a complete surprise to the russian military command.
According to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the strike destroyed or disabled a third of russia's strategic bombers including Tu-95, Tu-22, and A-50 reconnaissance aircraft. While this strike may not be definitive or game-changing, it demonstrates Ukraine's ability to conduct bold, high-tech operations that significantly reshape our understanding of modern military confrontation. The heavy reliance on drones is a strategic response to the lack of heavy weapons. In 2024, Ukraine produced 2.2 million drones and has set an ambitious goal of doubling that number in 2025.
This example also highlights the new strategic threat posed by low-cost yet highly effective drones to traditional defense systems, as well as the urgent need for investment in countermeasures against unmanned technologies. A strike against aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons introduces a new dimension of challenges to global security and strategic stability.
In another article from The Wall Street Journal, the author argues that the attack on the airbases is proof that Ukraine could ultimately win the war. Operation "Spider's Web" was not only a significant military success but also a serious symbolic blow to russia’s image. It exposed the vulnerability of a state that presents itself as a global military power and undermined the myth of president putin’s so-called “nuclear blackmail.” Ukraine has clearly demonstrated the capacity to strike back even at the strategic level.
The international community should recognize Ukraine’s achievement in neutralizing a third of the aircraft fleet that could have posed a threat to cities such as Warsaw, Berlin, or Paris. This action not only enhances European security but also reaffirms Ukraine’s role as a frontline defender of the civilized world against aggression. Ukraine will either prevail on the battlefield or compel russia to agree to a just and lasting peace.
In an article by Foreign Policy, the author analyzes the emergence of a new Ukrainian military doctrine called flat war. Unlike the centralized, hierarchical Soviet-style system, this model emphasizes maximum decentralization of command: brigades are given autonomy in decision-making, form their own units, collaborate with the private sector, manufacture drones, and respond to challenges without bureaucratic barriers.
Operation "Spider’s Web" was a vivid embodiment of this doctrine in action. Using 117 inexpensive drones costing about $1,000 each, Ukrainian forces inflicted billions of dollars in damage on russia, destroying at least a dozen strategic bombers.
Once again, Ukraine has demonstrated incredible ingenuity, determination, and the ability not only to defend itself but also to take proactive measures, even under the most difficult conditions of a full-scale war. The Ukrainian defense sector is developing rapidly: Ukraine already produces more than 40% of its required weapons, faster and more cheaply than its Western allies. Ukrainian producers supply more artillery systems than all of Europe combined.
In the process, the Ukrainians revealed a vulnerability that should give every general in the world sleepless nights. If the Ukrainians could sneak drones so close to major air bases in a police state such as Russia, what is to prevent the Chinese from doing the same with U.S. air bases? Or the Pakistanis with Indian air bases? Or the North Koreans with South Korean air bases?
Militaries that thought they had secured their air bases with electrified fences and guard posts will now have to reckon with the threat from the skies posed by cheap, ubiquitous drones that can be easily modified for military use. This will necessitate a massive investment in counter-drone systems. Money spent on conventional manned weapons systems increasingly looks to be as wasted as spending on the cavalry in the 1930s.
The Ukrainian operation on Sunday was a coordinated attack on four airports in Russia reaching as deep as Siberia. It neutralized 41 “strategic aircraft” and was a brilliant technical performance.
Over more than 18 months, hundreds of drones were smuggled deep into Russia. They were loaded onto civilian trucks with double-bottomed trailers, where they were concealed inside mobile boxes. The tops of those boxes—remotely controlled by operators in Ukraine but connected to the Russian telephone network—opened at the appointed time, allowing the drones to take off. All 41 targets were carefully studied for months by Ukrainian intelligence, and they exploded simultaneously without civilian casualties.
Ukraine’s unprecedented drone strikes on Russian air force bases weaken Moscow’s ability to wage war on its smaller neighbor and undermine its capacity to threaten more distant rivals such as the U.S.—a shift with potentially far-reaching geostrategic implications.
A sizable portion of the fleet Moscow uses to launch guided-missile attacks on Ukraine—and would rely on to strike adversaries in the event of a nuclear war—was damaged or destroyed in the coordinated attacks.
Russia no longer produces the decades-old Tupolev planes that were targeted in the attacks, meaning it has lost a cornerstone of its ability to project military power beyond its borders. Newer Russian planes are more modern and agile but lack vital characteristics of the destroyed bombers, most significantly their range and the quantity of munitions they can carry. According to Ukraine and open-source intelligence analysts, the attack also destroyed a rare plane Russia uses for airborne command-and-control, another capability vital to modern warfare.
Ukraine’s battlefield prospects against Russia clearly dimmed when the Trump administration took office. Trump has consistently signaled that, at the very least, military aid resembling anything close to that the Biden administration bankrolled would not be forthcoming. Ukraine’s route to a secure and sovereign future thus became much narrower—so much so that a dark pessimism descended on many European observers.
But the excessive gloom is uncalled for—and counterproductive. Ukraine already produces the world’s most advanced front-line weaponry and innovates with cunning on the battlefield. It has already routed Russia in the Black Sea theater and, recently, pulled off another bombastic coup in Operation Spider Web, targeting 41 aircraft with drone strikes deep into Russia and likely destroying at least 10 of them. As long as the Ukrainians’ determination to fight on is undiminished, there are strategies available to help them win—even without U.S. support at the levels to which they have become accustomed.
From a Ukrainian perspective, the most unusual thing about Operation Spider’s Web is precisely the fact that President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have been directly involved. Today, many of the most vital warfighting decisions are made not by the president’s office or the Ministry of Defense, but at the brigade level—the fundamental building block of the Ukrainian military. Brigades recruit their own soldiers (whom they can divert to technology development work according to their qualifications), liaise directly with companies about the weapons they need, and even manufacture drones in their own 3D-printing facilities. (Zelensky recently said that Ukraine made 2.2 million drones in 2024; the production target for this year is more than double that.)
Lithuania “will never give up” on the idea that Ukraine has to be in NATO, Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told POLITICO.
Lithuania is seen as one of the countries most exposed to a possible Russian attack thanks to the Suwałki Gap, a sparsely populated stretch of land on the border with Lithuania and Poland that divides the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and Russian ally Belarus.
Europe will reiterate its commitment to back Ukraine and sanction Russia, as the US delays a decision over increasing pressure on Moscow to get President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table.
The nations stand ready to increase sanctions on Russia and improve enforcement of existing penalties, notably in the banking and energy sectors, according to a draft copy of a joint statement by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, the UK and European Union that was seen by Bloomberg.
NATO allies will consider allowing contributions to Ukraine’s defense to be included in the new spending target alliance members are expected to adopt at a leaders’ summit later this month.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization will also propose working toward eliminating defense trade barriers, according to a preliminary draft of the summit declaration seen by Bloomberg. The draft will likely change before the final version is agreed to at the meeting in The Hague.
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