An abundance of hungover Russian drivers forced Ukraine to delay its “Pearl Harbor”-style attack on Moscow’s bomber fleet, just one of the hiccups that nearly thwarted the secret operation, according to a new report.
After Kyiv successfully sneaked dozens of drones into Russia for the unprecedented attack this past spring, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hoped to launch the assault around Russian Victory Day on May 9 to humiliate the Kremlin.
Instead, the festivities around the holiday, as well as Russian Labor Day, and Orthodox Easter, created an unexpected issue — a lack of active drivers to carry out the mission, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Security Service of Ukraine
For Operation Spider’s Web to be a success, Ukraine was relying on a group of unwitting Russian drivers to transport their drones to the desired locations, with the truckers believing they were only hauling mobile wooden cabins.
Unfortunately, there was a small pool of drivers to choose from during the holiday as hungover drivers took the day off, making it far too risky to carry out the mission, SBU officials told the WSJ.
It wasn’t until the end of May that Kyiv and its agents found the perfect set of drivers to hire for the days-long mission, which was carried out on July 1 and saw 41 Russian bombers damaged and destroyed.
The hungover drivers weren’t the only issue the SBU ran into when trying to pull off the clandestine mission.
During the drive to one of the destinations inside Russia, one of the local drivers noticed that the roof of one of the cabins fell off, with the trucker discovering the hidden drones inside.
The shocked driver immediately contacted his employer for an explanation, with the man on the other side of the phone being Artem Timofeev, a 37-year-old former Ukrainian DJ living in Russia who signed up with his wife, an erotic novelist, to put the drones and cabins together for the operation.
Timofeev feigned ignorance when the truck driver called him, with the SBU coaching him on how to lie to the Russian driver and convince him that the drones and wooden cabins were for hunting, according to the WSJ.
The Russian trucker bought the lie, put the roof of the cabin back on, and carried on with his trip.
The SBU saw additional hiccups when one of the trucks suffered a mechanical issue, with SBU officials and Timofeev able to load the cargo into another truck without anyone being the wiser.
Another issue occurred when Kyiv lost connection with two cabins housing the drones due to spotty connections, with officials trying to get a Russian truck driver to fix the issue without being alerted to what he was actually doing.
