Kiev, Ukraine – A domestic flight that spans the Baltic and the Pacific takes almost nine hours to reach Vladivostok’s port in Vladivostok, which is located just outside of Moscow.
Russia’s east-to-west border is approximately 10 000 kilometers (6,200 miles), or 17 million square kilometers (6,6 million square miles), making up 11% of the landmass of the Earth, which is slightly larger than the combined areas of China, India, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia.
Despite having two-thirds of it permafrost, Russia’s sheer size prevented invasions, whether it was through Napoleon’s Grand Army in 1812 or the 3.8 million soldiers of Nazi Germany and its allies in 1941.
Russia’s size has become a liability as the conflict with Ukraine, a former province whose Cossack armies once led czarist conquests, continues to grow.
Former deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, sarcastically told Al Jazeera, “Russia’s territory offers maximum capabilities for strikes.”
Ukrainians rewrite the rules of conflict and reject Russia’s dated tactics, from top brass to civilian volunteers building drones in their garages.
Kyiv shows every day that the nearly 2, 000 kilometers (1, 230 miles) long border between Russia and Ukraine is treacherous in both directions.
Tens of thousands of servicemen were diverted by it in Kursk and Bryansk, two western Russian regions.
In addition, Moscow’s Soviet-era air defense systems, which were built to intercept NATO missiles, are spread too thin throughout western Russia, frequently failing to withstand more sophisticated Ukrainian drone attacks.
According to Romanenko, the Ukrainian Security Service, the principal intelligence agency that has carried out numerous stings in Russia, “if a group of people is professional and motivated enough, it’ll always find a way to accomplish a goal, and that’s something the SBU proved.”
Operation Spiderweb, a massive drone attack launched by the SBU on June 1, marking the first time since the 2022 global invasion, was carried out there.
Near the Belaya airbase in the Irkutsk region, almost 4, 000 kilometers (2, 500 miles) east of the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian drones reportedly flew out of a truck to destroy or harm several strategic bombers.
Bombers were also targeted by the same sting in the Amur region, which is 7,500 kilometers (4,660 miles) east of Ukraine, but the Ukrainka (“Ukrainian woman”) airstrip was the only place the bombers were saved due to a technical issue.
The sting is a lesson that military installations are now more vulnerable than ever to cheap, easily hidden, and quickly deployed weapons, according to Mick Ryan, a former Australian general and fellow at the Sydney-based Lowy Institute.
Following humiliating defeats, Kyiv’s campaigns on Russian soil are bold and ambitious.
Many Ukrainians accompanied the occupants when they were ordered to surrender government buildings and military installations without firing a single shot following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
A third of the southeast Donbass region was taken over by Moscow-backed separatists a few weeks later, and Ukrainian forces were pushed out.
Moscow anticipated a blitzkrieg in 2022, so Vladimir Putin and his top brass might not have thought to consider defending its own territories.
Volodymyr Fesenko, the head of the Kyiv-based Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera, “They didn’t think about it at all, they didn’t plan a long operation.” Moscow “didn’t anticipate Ukraine to hold off on to Russian territory for such a long time and repel Russian aggression.”
Additionally, Ukrainian drones aim at locations in Moscow and the surrounding area, which have a large concentration of military installations and bases.
One of the palaces was reportedly slightly damaged by two Ukrainian drones that flew over the Kremlin in May 2023.
Two years later, Moscow’s suburbs continue to be awash with humming hummingbirds.
A woman who lives southwest of Moscow and requests anonymity told Al Jazeera, “I cherish nights without air raid sirens.”
Western Russia’s civil flights are frequently delayed or canceled, so some travelers take trains to airports in northern Kazakhstan.
Ukraine began pursuing Russia’s economy, which is the backbone of the country.
Nearly a sixth of Russia’s oil refining capacity was hampered by dozens of strikes on oil refineries and pipelines, according to the Pentagon’s defense intelligence agency in mid-May.
The strikes came as a response to Russia’s campaign to obliterate Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing a 30-percent increase in domestic gasoline prices, and triggering the import of gasoline from neighboring Belarus.
Washington slammed Kyiv for raising global oil prices because the attacks were so devastating.
In a nation with infamously potholed roads, Kyiv makes use of Russia’s excessive reliance on railroad supply lines.
Seven people were killed and 69 people were hurt when two bridges collapsed on May 30 in the western Russian towns of Kursk and Bryansk, causing the derailment of two trains.
Moscow attributed the explosions to “terrorist attacks” on Ukraine.
However, some analysts contend that Kyiv’s attacks on Russia are too belated, insufficient, and unfocused.
According to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at Germany’s Bremen University, Ukraine has “fore long ignored outdoor ammunition depots but symbolically and senselessly struck Moscow.”
Russia responded by building hangars and moving planes to even more distant airfields when it actually started hitting depots and airbases, he claimed.
What Ukraine can destroy without having the option of restoring, he said, will result in significant one-time losses for Russia. And that’s where I don’t actually see successes.
However, Romanenko, a retired general, believes that the real successes are still in store.
