US says Russian retaliation for Operation Spider’s Web yet to come as airstrikes on Ukraine continue

The United States believes Russia is still preparing its response to Ukraine’s unprecedented drone strikes on military airfields deep inside the country last Sunday, with officials warning that a “vicious and unrelenting” multi-pronged retaliation could come within days, Reuters reported on Saturday.

Several US officials who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said that Russia’s response would likely involve different attack capabilities, including missiles and drones, and would be “asymmetrical” rather than mirroring Ukraine’s Operation Spider’s Web.

A Western diplomatic source cited by Reuters suggested that while Russia’s response may already be underway, it would likely escalate — potentially targeting symbolic Ukrainian sites such as government buildings — in order to deliver a clear message to Kyiv. A second source told Reuters they expected Moscow to directly target the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in retaliation for its lead role in last weekend’s assault.

On 1 June, Ukraine targeted strategic air bases in five regions across Russia in a coordinated mass drone strike that took over a year and a half to plan. According to Vasyl Malyuk, the head of the SBU,34% of Russia’s military aircraft were damaged in the attack, though a subsequent German military assessment estimated that only 10% of Russian military aircraft were impacted.

Since then, Russian forces have launched large-scale missile and drone strikes on Ukraine, killing four people in Kyiv on Friday, while two separate strikes on Kharkiv on Saturday killed four people and injured up to 60, and was described by Mayor Ihor Terekhov as Russia’s “most powerful attack” on the city since the start of full-scale war.

Russia launched another round of drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s eastern Kharkiv and Donetsk regions overnight Saturday, the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) said on Sunday morning. The strikes, which comprised 49 attack drones and three missiles launched from occupied Crimea and Zaporizhzhia, were successfully repelled, the UAF added.

Two Moscow airports were temporarily closed early on Sunday morning due to the threat posed by Ukrainian drones. In a series of posts on his Telegram channel, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that 10 Ukrainian attack drones had been destroyed in the early hours of Sunday.