Satellite images showed Russian military planes parked on the tarmac at airforce bases in Murmansk and Irkutsk regions days and weeks before the airfields were targeted in a Ukrainian attack on Sunday (June 1).

Capella Space provided Reuters data from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites recorded on Monday (June 2), which direct energy beams at the earth and detect echoes, making it possible to identify small topographical details. This helped reveal several damaged planes in the Irkutsk airfield.

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its most ambitious attacks of the war, targeting Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers in Siberia and elsewhere.

A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, a Ukrainian intelligence official said. Ukraine's domestic intelligence service, the SBU, estimated the damage at $7 billion and said Russia had lost 34% of its strategic cruise missile carriers at its main airfields.

The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday, causing several aircraft to catch fire.

It said the attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions — Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said.

Satellite images captured by the American company Planet Labs in May, showed military planes, including what appeared to be TU-95 bombers, parked on the tarmac at an airfield in Murmansk on May 29, days before the attack, and also at an airfield in Irkutsk on May 17.

Ukraine said the attack involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases.

Ukraine's domestic security agency, the SBU, acknowledged that it carried out the operation, codenamed "Spider's Web" and said it had caused considerable damage.

MOST SIGNIFICANT ATTACK YET

Kyiv's targeting of Russian nuclear-capable strategic bombers in Siberia and elsewhere was "by far" Ukraine's most significant attack yet on Russia's long-range strike forces, a Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Justin Bronk, said on Monday (June 2).

A security official who spoke on condition of anonymity, said strikes were conducted on Sunday on four air bases, and that 41 Russian warplanes were hit and an SBU statement posted on the Telegram messaging app estimated the damage caused by the assaults at $7 billion.

Bronk said roughly 10% of Russia's airborne nuclear bombing capability could have been destroyed in the attack based on the losses confirmed so far, but the number could rise to over 20% if Ukrainian claims were correct.

“In the immediate foreseeable future, it's probably next to impossible for Russia to replace the losses that it suffered here," he added.