Russian truck drivers who unknowingly transported Ukrainian drones during Operation Spiderweb face life in prison

Moscow’s Basmanny District Court has brought criminal charges against the first four defendants accused of participation in Ukraine’s Operation Web, which saw drones launched from long-haul trucks attack military airfields on Russian territory. The charges were brought against the Russian drivers — Mikhail Ryumin, Alexander Zaitsev, Andrei Merkuryev and Sergei Kanurin — who unknowingly transported cargo with Ukrainian drones hidden inside. The four stand accused of involvement in a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act resulting in significant damage, according to a report by the Russian daily newspaper Kommersant.

On Jan. 28, the court extended the detention of Ryumin and Kanurin until May 2026. A hearing on extending the preventive measure for Merkuryev and Zaitsev is scheduled for Jan. 30. The drivers were arrested shortly after the operation, and none of them attempted to evade investigators. Video footage recorded at the start of the operation shows them trying to knock down the drones taking off from their trucks.

“Despite the arguments presented by the investigator, Kanurin’s guilt has not been proven. In essence, the evidence confirms that Kanurin inadvertently turned out to be the person transporting the drones. His entire ‘guilt’ lies in the fact that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is wrong to judge him for that,” said the lawyer for one of the drivers. Ryumin also insisted that he had been “used unknowingly,” and his defense requested that his detention be replaced with house arrest due to his health — the defendant has two damaged spinal discs and one arm that is almost nonfunctional.

Russian innvestigators believe that the coordinators of the operation, carried out on the initiative of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), were Ukrainian nationals Artyom and Ekaterina Timofeyev, as well as an unidentified person with the surname Borisovsky. All of them have been put on a wanted list. According to the prosecution, the coordinators created an organized group of drivers that, in addition to the four defendants, included Vasily Pytikov (who was killed during the operation when the Ukrainian drone concealed in his cargo exploded prematurely).

The SBU carried out Operation Spiderweb on June 1, 2025. The air bases Belaya (Irkutsk Region), Olenya (Murmansk Region), Dyagilevo (Ryazan Region) and Ivanovo-Severny (Ivanovo Region) were attacked. At a set time, trucks carrying prefabricated houses were positioned near the targets, with drones concealed beneath the roofs. The remotely controlled roofs then opened, allowing the drones to launch and strike aircraft at the airfields. The target list also included the Ukrainka air base in Russia’s Amur Region in the Far East, but the truck carrying those drones exploded en route.

The fact that none of the drivers knew the true nature of their cargo was confirmed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in interviews with Western journalists.

This is not the first example of Russian nationals facing legal scrutiny after unintentionally playing a role in a Ukrainian operation. On Jan. 27, eight people who were sentenced to life in prison over their involvement in the October 22 explosion on the Kerch Bridge sent an open appeal to the presidents of Russia, the United States, and Ukraine, as well as to international human rights organizations. Artyom Azatyan, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Roman Solomko, Artur Terchanyan, and Dmitry Tyazhelykh claim they are victims of a miscarriage of justice. All of those convicted were involved in organizing the logistics of what they believed was a civilian shipment — construction polyethylene film — and were not aware that an explosive device had been concealed inside. The claim that they had been used unknowingly was also confirmed by former Security Service of Ukraine chief Vasyl Malyuk. The driver of the truck, who also appears to have been unaware of the nature of his cargo, was killed in the blast.