Depositphotos / Президент України
Previously not too favorable to Ukraine Elon Musk commented on the post by Sean Maguire, co-owner of Sequoia Capital, on the Ukrainian drone attack on Russian aviation.
On the social network X, Maguire posted one of the videos attacks by Russian strategic aviation with SBU drones. He commented on the strike, citing figures for distances and damage caused by drones (which were later clarified officially).
Drones are the future of warfare.
Manned aircraft are not.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2025
«Ukraine has just launched an attack that has become a turning point in the history of warfare. Hundreds of drones were pre-deployed and then hit more than 40 aircraft more than 1,000 kilometers inside Russia. Damage of more than $1 billion from drones costing less than $1 million. Critical infrastructure is no longer safe», — to which Musk responded with the phrases in the headline.
Yesterday, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine Vasily Malyuk reported to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the results of the «Web» operation, which had been carefully planned for more than a year and a half. The attack was directed from the territory of the Russian Federation, in close proximity to one of the FSB’s regional offices. During the operation, 117 drones hit 34% of the enemy’s strategic cruise missile carriers. Ukrainian agents operating in many regions of Russia were successfully withdrawn and are now safe. In the official message The SBU estimates the Russian aggressor’s losses at $7 billion.
OSINT researcher and Ukrainian military Mortis Æterna, citing data from Military Balance, states that 34% mentioned by the president is not even more than the 40 aircraft previously reported by anonymous media sources. He emphasizes that the damage is actually irreparable, as Russia no longer produces strategic aircraft. Based on the satellite images that appeared in the evening, Ukrainian OSINT «Eye of Hor» calculated documented damage to 13 aircraft at air bases «Olenya» (Murmansk region of the Russian Federation) and «Belaya» (Irkutsk region). In particular, these are 8 Tu-95s, 4 Tu-22M3s and 1 An-12.
Sean Maguire’s phrase about the danger to critical infrastructure has a great strategic meaning. The Ukrainian operation has demonstrated that anyone can expect a surprise attack anywhere, outside of Russia and Ukraine. Such attacks take military and possibly other infrastructure worth billions of dollars by surprise. Other states or groups will almost certainly study the Ukrainian experience. Being located in the interior of any country and traditional forms of defense of strategic facilities no longer seem sufficient. Ukrainian drones have previously achieved this at sea, and now they are heading for dominance in the air.