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NATO Admiral: Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb Is a Reinvented Trojan Horse

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Roman Kohanets
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NATO Admiral: Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb Is a Reinvented Trojan Horse
Russian warplanes under attack by drones at their airbases, June 1, 2025. (Source: SBU)

NATO Admiral Pierre Vandier praised Ukraine’s June 1 drone strike—Operation Spiderweb—calling it a powerful example of how innovation and adaptability are critical to victory in modern warfare, which is evolving at lightning speed. His remarks were reported on June 9, according to AFP.

“What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan Horse - and the Trojan horse was thousands of years ago… today, we see this kind of tactic being reinvented by technical and industrial creativity,” Admiral Vandier said, highlighting how Ukraine found the way to penetrate deep into Russian air defenses.

Operation Spiderweb was carried out on June 1, when the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) launched a covert drone assault on five Long-Range Aviation airbases deep inside Russia. The operation employed 117 FPV-style drones concealed in trucks and assembled on site. Subsequent analyses confirmed up to one-third of Russia’s cruise missile carrier fleet disabled. Such losses are especially crippling given Russia’s inability to replace these aging platforms.

Admiral Vandier stated that NATO must internalize the lessons of Operation Spiderweb by integrating innovative unmanned systems into its doctrine and procurement, ensuring the alliance can adapt rapidly to evolving threats on tomorrow’s battlefield. 

"No-one in the military sphere will tell you that we can do without what we'll call traditional equipment. However, we are certain we need new equipment to complement it."

Earlier, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described Operation Spiderweb as a turning point that restored domestic morale and international confidence in Ukraine’s resilience. Speaking on June 2, he emphasized the operation’s independence — conducted without foreign partners — and its symbolic weight in signalling that “The Russian narrative that they are safe and winning this war no longer works.”

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